Concrete Paradise
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: After being rescued from the island, Jack and Kate go about moving on together. When things finally look on the up, their lives are plunged into turmoil again as the drama keeps on coming. Major JK and also CC and SS
1. Horizon Dawn

**Hey, this is my first Lost fic. I'm not sure if all the facts are right in it, because Lost has only just started airing here in the Uk, so I've only seen episodes up to Sun and Jin's past. (Hurley's is screening on Wednesday). I will try to post up future chapters as often as I can, but with so many stories to update at once, it might be hard, but I will try. I've just started college as well, so maybe I'll get a chance to draft a few chapters inmy free periods. By the way, if anyone could let me know the name of Claire's son, I would be really grateful.  
Please read and review, I love getting reviews and they help me to write.  
Thanx  
Sam.  
Xx**

A year and four days passed before they were rescued. A passing ship had gone by and picked them up, telling them that a plane had gone over and seen the fire that they kept burning every night on the shore. All that Kate remembered of that frantic morning, was being shaken awake by Jack, who had previously been her substitute for a pillow, and then quickly dressing fully and gathering her few remaining belongings. Tom's plane, the rest of her salvaged clothing, and her other possessions from the plane wreck were all that were still with her, unlike the others who had more to collect.

She stood at the side of the ship, watching as the island that had been their home for a year disappeared slowly towards the horizon. Or was it they who were fading into the line that seperated the sky from the sea? She couldn't tell. All that she knew, was that the biggest change in her life was drifting away, and she almost, _almost, _missed it.

She didn't miss the occassional water shortages, or lack of food. She didn't miss the freak storms, which would wake them in the middle of the night, dripping through small cracks in the cave, and hammering loudly against the tarpaulin of the tents on the beack. She didn't miss the aching feeling that something could go wrong at any moment. And most of all, she didn't miss the monsters that lay concealed, waiting, in the jungle.

She did, however, miss the more friendly moments. She missed sitting with Sun and Claire in Sun's garden, playing with Claire's infant son, who longed to play with the butterflies and birds that flew around him. She missed watching the relationships on the island intensify with every day spent their; husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, brother and sister, father and son, mother and son, they were all their, and somehow, they were stronger...because of the island. Most of all though, she missed Jack.

Four months into their adventure on the island, she had got together with Jack. She could remember the day clearly in her mind.

_"It's just some fruit, Jack. We need it." She told him as she packed some water bottles into her tattered rucksack. _

_"We can wait a few more hours." He told her stubbornly._

_"You know damn well we can't." She countered._

_"At least wait for Locke...or Charlie...or Michael...or anyone, just please don't go out ther alone, Kate!" He protested, following her every move across the room with his pleading eyes. _

_"Jack, I've been out there many times on my own before, nothing is going to happen." She assured him._

_"You don't know that." He said softly. She had been aware of the changes between them for a few days now. Jack was more protective of her than any of the others, and the thought of something happening to her was torturing him from the inside out. So, naturally, when she volunteered to go and get the food they needed to survive until Locke came back from his hunting trip with Michael, he had tried straight away to un-volunteer her. _

_She lifted the bag onto her shoulder. "I'll be back in a few hours." She said quietly as she left the cave. She heard him sigh as she walked passed him, and he grabbed hold of her arm, forcing her around to face him. There was a silence in between them where they gazed into each others eyes. She had always thought that his eyes were wonderful to look at, no, into. When their eyes connected, it was like the island's worries vanished, and it was simply her and Jack standing together, anywhere. She was first to look away though, and he whispered softly to her._

_"Just be careful, Kate." He said to her. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you." He added, admitting what had been playing on his mind since the first time she had gone out alone. He had never had those protective feelings with anyone before, and that scared him a bit, to know that he cared for someone so much even though, in a way, he barely knew her at all._

_"Don't worry." She said, with her usual air of confidence. "I can take care of myself." _But for how long? _Jack wondered as she disappered into the jungle._

_She had only been walking for about half an hour when she found a perfect tree, which not only had a very good supply of fruit at the top, but also had perfect branches for climbing. Not that it would have been a problem if it didn't, she mused, as she goot a good footing and began her easy climb. Once she was up among the fruit, she began to pack it into her rucksack, and having collected enough to last them until dinner, she did the bag up, and slung it back onto her shoulders. She was about halfway down the tree when..._

_A sound below her disturbed her, and she recognised it as the familiar growl of a wild boar. She almost didn't want to look down, but she did anyway, and came face to face with not one, but three boars. There was no hope of them not seeing her, for they were already fixed on her, growling up at her, waiting for her. She gulped. What should she do?_

_They started to claw at the tree, and try to get high enough to get her, but luckily, she was too high up for them. She decided that the best thing to do was wait it out, until they got bored, or distracted, and left. This seemed like a perfect plan, until she realised that the boar were getting angrier with each passing moment, and the terrible sound of creaking and cracking reached her ears. Glancing to her side, she could see the branch that she had stopped on was groaning, where it was thinner than the others. She held her breath, knowing that any more pressure would snap it for sure, including trying to raise or lower herself onto another branch. _

_A rustling in the bushes caught her off guard and there was a fleeting moment where she faltered, and the branch completely gave way. She gave a small scream as she fell, and landed hard against the ground on her side. Her hip ached, and she guessed that it was probably bruised, and the end of the branch had fallen onto her head, making her dizzy. Dizzy enough to forget the boars for a second._

_A growl reawaked her mind, and she lay still on her side, hearing them coming closer and closer. Maybe her best chance was to run for it. Slowly, she raised herself to her feet, but as she did, one of them lunged at her and caught her arm, gashing it with its tusk. She cried out, as blood began to leak slowly from the wound and down her arm. Holding it up instinctively, another one lunged at her, but even as it ran straight towards her, it only caught her stomach as it had done her arm, because someone had wrapped their arms around her waist and pulled her out of it's path before it was caught in a net with the other two._

_Kate looked around as the person released her, and looked into the familiar face of Michael. Further along the path, Locke emerged by the boars. "You okay?" Michael asked her, looking at her arm. _

_"Yeah, it's just a scratch." She said bravely. _God, Jack's going to have a field day with this.

_"It's more than a scratch." Locke said coming over. "Or you've got a bigger wound somewhere else." She looked down to where Locke was pointing at her stomach, and saw blood seeping over her white t-shirt. Pulling it up slightly, she saw the wound, alike the one on her arm, but deeper. Grimacing, she pulled the top back down._

_"Shit." She mumbled._

_"Mike, take her back to Jack." Locke said when he saw the wounds. "He needs to take a look at that and fast." _

_"What about you?" Michael asked him._

_"I'll finish up with these and bring them back, you just take Kate back." He ordered. Michael wrapped one of Kate's arms around his shoulders, and helped her walk back, which was quite painful because of her bruised hip. They went back by a different route, so it took only half the time to get back, but just before they got there she felt her head spin again, and touched her hand to the back of her head. A lump was forming there, probably from the branch, and she swayed against Michael._

_"Hey," He said stopping for a moment. _

_"I can't Michael." She said, trying to sit down but he held her upright. "I have to rest for a minute." _

_He knew that this wasn't like Kate at all. She was usually strong, but now she wanted to sit down and rest? "Come on Kate." He encouraged. "We're nearly there."_

_He started walking again, knowing they were almost back to the camp, but she crumbled against him, still conscious. "Kate!" He lifted her into his arms, and ran into the camp. "Jack? JACK!"_

_Jack came running out of a cave and saw the blood covered Kate in Michael's arms and swore, rushing over to them. "Kate!" He cried out as he got over to them. "What happened?" He asked Michael._

_"She fell out of a tree and got attacked by a boar." He explained as Jack made him follow him into the cave where Jack's medical supplies were. Michael laid her down on Jack's makeshift bed and Jack began to examine her._

_"Kate, Kate, can you hear me?" Jack asked her, as she was conscious. She groaned in response. "Kate, listen to me, did you hit your head?" _

_"Tree branch...fell." She murmered tiredly. _

_"Did it hit your head, Kate?" He asked her clearly._

_"Yeah...tired..." She said, closing her eyes, but Jack righted her head with his hand and forced her to look at him. _

_"Kate, no you can't sleep. Not yet." He told her, not wanting her to sleep with a concussion if she had one, knowing that the effects could be dangerous. She opened her eyes again and gazed at him weakly as he peeled up the bottom of her t-shirt, which was now soaked with blood. He stitched it, and it pained him to hear her moans of pain as he was without an anesthetic of any kind. Afterwards, he sealed and bandaged the wound on her stomach, and also covered the deep graze on her arm. He checked the lump on the back of her head, just above her neck, and then checked herbody for any other injuries, luckily finding none except minor scrapes._

_Sitting back, he looked down at his hands, now completely covered in blood...Kate's blood...and wiped them off. He let out a breath that he hadn't realised that he had been holding, and put his hand on the side of her face again. "Kate?"_

_"Mmm..." _

_"Kate, talk to me."_

_"Yeah, Jack."_

_He was glad that she was responding well. "I know it's hard, but I need for you to stay awake for a while." He spoke to her like she was any regular patient, but that was only to cover up how much he was worried for her in his heart. The sight of her covered in blood was enough to turn his blood icy. _

_"No," She argued. "I'm too tired, Jack."_

_"No, Kate." He said strongly. "I don't want you to fall into a coma, or worse. Just for a few hours, Ok?" He said. _

_"Please, don't leave me." She whispered, so quietly that if Jack hadn't seen her lips moving, he would have thought he imagined it. _

_"Try not to move around much either," He continued, "You need your stomach to heal nicely, you're lucky that you didn't loose too much blood." He told her, not wanting to fail her like he had failed Boone._

_"Jack, please." She said louder, but weakly. "Just stay with me a while. Keep me awake, or I'll fall asleep." She said. _

_Jack looked around, Michael had disappeared a while ago, after Jack told him that there wasn't any more he could do, but thanked him for bringing her back so quickly. No one was around the entrance to the cave, most were either down at the beach or outside under the foliage. He looked down at Kate, who's half-closed eyes watched him, and he nodded. "Okay." He said, moving so that he was sitting with her to his side._

_"Jack?" She said softly._

_"Yeah, Kate."_

_"Thank you, for this." She said. _

_"All part of my job." He told her._

_"No, for staying with me." She corrected. _

_He grinned, unable to supress it. "If it helps you, I'll do anything." He informed._

_Now that she was out of danger, he felt much more relieved. When Michael had come over to him carrying her, he feared she was dead at first. If she was dead, how would he cope on this island, without her?_

_"It'll take more than a couple of hungry animals to get rid of me." She said stubbornly._

_Jack laughed, causing her to laugh weakly along with him. "I should hope so." He said. "I don't know what I'd do without you here to keep me sane."_

_She shook her head. "I think that's the other way around." _

_"I don't. You help me more than you think, Kate." He said softly. "All I do on this island, it felt like I wasn't getting any reward for it, when others were. Well, I guess that's what you expect being a doctor." He shrugged. "But then you were around, and I never felt so close to anyone before." He admitted. He took up her hand in his. "I really care for you, Kate. Really. I..I think I love you."_

_She turned her head and looked at him. Her heart thumped a thousand miles an hour when he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her like he had wanted to since the minute he first saw her in the forest._

Since she had been injured that day, Jack had given her the same knee-melting kisses everyday. Another eight months passed, and they were still going strong together, right up until the day the boat came to get them. She was scared now, though, that things would drift back into reality. The island had passed them into a new life, would going back to their old lives change things? She had already heard from her lawyers on the boat that her case had been cleared, and that her time on the island had seemed to be more of a sentance than she deserved, so she was free to go anywhere she liked. But would Jack continue to love her, when he had his old life back?

As if on cue, a pair of strong arms embraced her from behind, and she felt someone nuzzling against her hair, which was freshly washed, thicker and curlier than ever. She placed her hands over the ones which had settled on her waist, and leaned back against the man she knew was there. "Hey." She whispered. "I thought you were going to get some sleep."

"I'd rather wait for you." Jack replied quietly. He saw that she was looking at the island, now seeming the size of a coin in the distance. "You miss it, don't you?" He commented.

"Jack, quit reading me like a book it's getting freaky." She said with a small laugh. But she supposed that it even if it wasn't written all over her face, that Jack could read it on her anyway. He could always get inside her head, tell what she was thinking, what she was feeling. When you spend so much time with a person, it must grown on you so much that you can see right into their mind through their eyes.

"Stop avoiding the question." He laughed back.

She leaned her head back to where it fit perfectly against his shoulder. He was only a little taller than her, but was tall enough so that when she leaned, she could rest her head perfect on his shoulder, or on his chest. "Yeah, in a strange sort of way."

"Me too." He admitted. "Although I never thought that I'd actually miss that place."

"We wouldn't have found each other, without it." She reminded him, and he kissed her temple.

"That's why I'll miss it." He said.

She sighed.

"What's the matter?" He asked her.

"Nothing." She said, looking at the sea before her, crystal clear, but she could no longer see the waves washing against the golden shore as she loved to watch them so much.

"Kate, I can tell something's wrong." He said.

She was silent for a moment, but then replied with what was really on her mind. "Jack, what happens now?" She asked him.

"You're free to go wherever you like. After all, you're not a wanted criminal anymore."

"No, I mean, with us." She said.

Jack nuzzled at her again. "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't intend on running away at all." He told her.

"Can we survive in a normal world together?" She asked him.

"Kate, we've spent the past year on a deserted island, living on the beach, and in caves, with people we didn't know at all at first, living off of fish, wild boar, and fruit. We survived that together, we can survive anything together."

The word 'together' eased her mind. "Promise me something?"

He wrapped his arms tighter over her mid-section. "Anything."

"No matter what comes now, we'll be together." She said.

"I promise." He said.

Silently, they watched as the island that had homed not only themselves, but their blossoming relationship, faded into a line on the horizon, into a speck on the skyline, and finally, it was gone. She felt tears well in her eyes, but blinked them away. She would not cry over it, after all, it was a new beginning.


	2. Sunset's Fade

**Thank you sooooo much to all of my lovely reviewers: MyNameIsKate; October Sky (I've read some of your Lost stories and they're brilliant!); Northbabii03; Laney23; Hayley; Antatobo.  
Thanks for letting me know Aaron's name as well. He hasn't been born yet because I'm watching from the UK. I was wrong about last nights episode though, it was about Sawyer, not Hurley. I can't believe Kate kissed him, but then I'm not a big Kate/Sawyer fan. I think that Sawyer deserved to be punched by Jack, it was good to see him let loose.  
I know vaugely about this character Ethan as well...by any chance was it him who knocked Sayid out and broke the transmitter equiptment? Just wondering.  
Anyway, on with the next chapter:  
Sam  
xx**

When they were approaching the Sydney coastline, Kate was struck by a sudden thought. She had rushed around the boat, trying to find Jack, but no one had seen him. She kept on looking, until she found him, leaning against the railings on the oppsite end of the boat, gazing back at the direction they had sailed from. He turned around before she got near him, having heard footfalls approaching and leaning back against the railings. When she reached him, he stole a kiss from her and secured his arms around her waist.

"Hey." He said when she smiled up at him. "All ready to go?"

She smirked. "Not that I have much to go to." That was her dilemma. She had been on the run for so long before landing on the island, that she had never had a place that she really called home. The island was more of a home to her than anything she had known in her life. Where would she go now?

"You have me." Jack told her, and she shook her head at the idea with a smile. That was a romantic idea and all, but could it really be that simple? "Come on," He said suggestively. "Lets get our own place, out here, in Sydney."

"Together? Us?" She asked. The idea of her and Jack having the idealistic house in the suburbs flashed through her mind causing her to laugh a little.

"We've been together for eight months now." He reminded her. "And I'm sure a house will be more comfortable than a cave." He pointed out.

She laughed. Remembering the amount of times she had woken up with sore limbs because of the cave, and she had been forever grazing her arms on the edges of it. Not to mention the tiny bits of mud that found their way into her hair (although, thinking about it, that might have been something to do with Jack not having much self control at times). She couldn't wait to have a nice long lie-in in a comfortable bed with real pillows and blankets; or having a relazing warm bath. She already had a list of things she wanted to do, one of which was to buy a large bar of chocolate and devour it infront of the television.

"Well? What do you think?" He asked her.

She thought it over. She'd have more private time to spend with Jack, and she wouldn't have any reason to run any more. She'd have a home, somewhere she belonged. She leaned up and kissed him passionately, letting her lips do the talking for her. When they parted he looked down at her huskily.

"So that's a yes then?" He asked smiling.

"Yes. It's a yes." She replied, batting him playfully on the arm.

They had all been taken to a hotel not to far from the beach, where they could stay until they had arranged further plans. A department store nearby had also offered for them to pick out several outfits for themselves free of charge, which had proved the rest of the day to be a day of paradise for the ladies, whereas the men simply found two or three outfits and then went back to the hotel. The girls also had a lot of fun going around baby shops, looking for some clothes for baby Aaron. The shop was so full of lovely clothes that even Kate found herself wanting someone to dress them up in. Everything was so delicate and tiny, and yet all Aaron wanted when the guys walked off to go to the hotel was to go with Charlie. Once he realised that he had the undivided attention of Claire, Shannon, Kate and Sun, he warmed up a lot to this shopping spree.

Back at the hotel that night, Kate was standing out on the veranda that overlooked the beach. The view was wonderful, but it was nothing compared to that of the island. She looked behind her, into the bar. People were beginning to arrive. Hurley, Charlie and Claire were already seated around one of the long tables meant specifically for the survivors. She turned from the tempting sea and went back into the resturant, where they all jumped up to greet her. She loved that even though the circumstances were less than desirable, she had found friends, who had continued to stand by her even when her past was revealed. No one cared that she was a criminal. No one cared what she had done.

It was Sawyer who appeared next, now wearing a blue shirt opened up over a white tank top beneath it. He had shaved, and Kate had to admit that even though she mainly despised him, he did look rather Handsome. He sat down beside Hurley with his usually "Hey, Freckles," and watched the conversations around him' not really contributing rather than adding in a sarcastic comment when need be.

Sun and Jin arrived. Since it was revealed that Sun could speak English, she had started to teach her husband, and Jin now knew the basics of the English language, and knew it more in depth to listen to rather than speak it. Jin had also realised that he needed to let Sun have more fun, which had, in turn, made him develop a strong friendship with Michael, who had at one point been attacked by him.

When Michael and Walt joined them, Kate found it strange to see Walt without Vincent at his side, but even though they were insperable, Walt still knew that they couldn't have a dog in the resturant, and it wasn't a good idea to test how much they were allowed to get away with at the hotel.

Kate was talking with Shannon when Jack arrived eventually. He was wearing a short-sleeved black shirt, partly unbuttoned at the top, and a pair of blue jeans. He, as had the others, had shaved, and cleaned up _very_ nicely. Almost too nicely for Kate to even think about making it through dinner. Jack took up a seat beside her, which she had left empty for him, and he leaned over to kiss her before whispering in her ear.

"You," He said said temptingly, "look amazing."

He had never seen her as he did now. Being on the island had limited the clothes and styles she wore, but tonight she was wearing a simple strap dress, which showed off her legs with a compliment. It was pale blue in colour, which contrasted wonderfully with her brown hair, which was neatly brushed and hanging loose over her shoulders. She hadn't put on make up, as Shannon had done, and Jack was glad that she hadn't. She looked beautiful enough with out it, and truth be told, he had never seen her wear it anyway.

"You don't clean up too badly yourself, doctor." She whispered back with a sly smirk.

The meal they had was wonderful. Kate hadn't realised how much she had missed roast potatoes...and carrots...and peas...and swede...and everything else she had piled onto her plate. The real delight came from the desert though - warm, slightly melted, chocolate fudge cake. Her eyes had lit up when she saw it on the menu, and didn't even bother to read the rest of it. She couldn't believe that she had kept cravings for chocolate under control for a year, but then again, she didn't really have much choice when there wasn't any around. Now though, for various reasons, she was less able to control it.

After their meal, they stayed sitting at the table, all talking amongst themselves. Soon enough, everyone had found out that Kate was moving in with Jack when they found a place, and Sawyer smirked.

"How long before there's a minature Jack-O running around then?" He asked teasingly, causing both Jack and Kate to blush furiously, and the rest of the table to laugh hysterically at the shade of their cheeks. Only Hurley had seen Jack's cheeks that colour before when he had accidently walked in on Kate and Jack in a rather intimate moment. Needless to say, walking in had turned instantly into running out.

In answer to Sawyer's question, Kate bit her lip. She had worried about a question like this popping up. Beside her, she could see that Claire had made a big point about taking a drink from her wine, and neither Sun nor Shannon would meet her gaze. Jack looked at her, and she saw the same expression on his face. Only a few select people actually knew that Kate was pregnant, but obviously that was going to be made common knowledge within the next thirty seconds. She had only found out that morning, having brought a test when they were shopping, and had at first only told Shannon, who accidently let it slip to Claire and Sun while they were waiting for the result. She had told Jack afterwards, who hadn't been able to stop himself from telling Charlie.

Thirty seconds of silence passed...a minute...and finally Sawyer realised. "Oooohhhh..." He said. "I get it. You're already pregnant, aren't you Freckles?" He said in annoying tone of voice.

Kate released her lip from between her teeth and looked awkward for a moment. "Well..." She began but Sawyer cut her off laughing. "What's so funny?" She asked him.

"Nothing." He said, quietening as if chastisied. "If it were up to me, you two would be the last people I would let breed though."

Jack shook his head, grinning. "If it were up to you Sawyer, all females would live in bikini's and be your eternal love slaves."

Sawyer seemed to like this idea, and stopped talking for a while.

"Well, congratulations, guys." Michael said, clapping Jack on the back while he went to get some more food on his plate.

"Oh my god." Shannon exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" Everyone asked in unison.

"Just think...this baby could have Kate's stubborness, common sense, and lust for adventure, as well as Jack's stubborness, protectiveness and intelligence..." She said. "Any babysitter would turn into a hostage after ten minutes." She laughed.

"Yeah dudes." Hurley agreed. "It would be like a super baby, but instead it would be danger baby."

Kate and Jack both laughed. They couldn't imagine any baby of theirs being dubbed 'Danger Baby', but obviously the others said differently. The pair sat listening as the guys started to talk about all the neat tricks they were going to teach their baby as well as Aaron, to annoy their parents, and the girls began planning a wedding for Kate and Jack that neither were aware was occuring, but was apparently taking place on a beach.

It got late, and Walt was the first one to feel the tiredness. Him and Michael disappeared upstairs, and so did Claire, who wanted to put Aaron down to sleep in the crib he had in hers and Charlie's room. Sawyer decided to take advantage of the sudden amount of alcohol open to him, and was completely smashed already; most of his words being nothing more than a drunken slur which none of them could understand, or a decleration of him wanting another drink. After a while, he started to fall asleep on his feet, and Hurley had helped him stumble up to his room.

Kate and Jack went back out onto the veranda that Kate had been on earlier. Jack's arm was wrapped around her waist and she was leaning against him gently. Behind them, they could hear music playing, and people talking, laughing. She started to miss the peace and quiet of the island, where the only music came from Charlie's guitar and the singing of the survivors. Laughter, as well, had become more common on the island once they had started upon their own civilisation. She blocked out the sounds of the other people, people who had been staring at the survivors all day as though they were celebrities, and focused on the gentle crashing of the waves not to far away.

Until being on the island, she had never really liked the ocean. When she was constantly surrounded by it though, she liked nothing better than to stare out into the bleak horizon, not to watch for a ship passing, but rather just to relax. Stormy seas were better. She would stand safely back, and watch the ferocious waves smash against the shore while the rain poured down and lightening forked overhead. She had only done this once, however, on the island, because she had ended up being Jack's patient for the rest of the week when she had caught a violent cold as a result of standing in the rain all night. She hadn't minded the attention, but the fact that she could be off doing other things, like helping out, annoyed her that she was ordered to stay lying down and resting.

The pair were silent for a while, and Jack remembered that this morning, when the sun rose, they were all on the island. He hadn't even been expecting rescue anymore, having given that up for good after five months. Now, the island was gone, and they were back in civilisation, back with people, back with families. He had a phonecall from his mother when she had seen on the news that he was alive, and she was coming to Sydney as soon as she could, although she was nervous about travelling by plane. As far as he knew, Kate hadn't called anyone, but then she had barely sat down for two seconds to relax all day, as per usual. Some things, no matter where you are, never change.

Jack noticed Kate's eyes drooping. "Tired, by any chance?" He asked her.

She nodded, closing her eyes. "Exhausted. I never thought that shopping could be so tiring, but then again, I've never been shopping with Claire or Shannon." She added.

He laughed, and kissed her. "Come on, let's go upstairs." Taking her hand, he led her up to the elevator, along the corridor, and into their room, where they finally got to sleep with real pillows, a real matress, and a real blanket. Kate was asleep before she had even laid down, but Jack stayed awake for a while, watching her sleep. He gazed down at her stomach, wondering how long she had been pregnant for, and how long it would be until she started to show, and what the baby would be. Would it be a boy? Or a girl? He didn't mind, although he suspected that Kate might like a girl, or would that be a boy? Calm down Jack, he thought, you've only known since this afternoon, you've got enough time to think about all of this still.

Before long, the comfortable bed pulled him into sleep as well. Wrapping his arm around Kate and spooning behind her, he closed his eyes, his face half buried in her hair, and had the best sleep he had in over a year; knowing that there would be no chance of him waking up to a medical emergency or a frantic survivor.


	3. The Battle for Chocolate

**Thank you for all of my reviews! It's midnight here when I've written this, and I've got back from a party (first seen stripper! yay!), so if it's bizaare in any way, blame that. Because of my wonderful reviewers, I decided to post another chapter as soon as possible, because you all rock so much! If I were stuck on an island, I hope you are all there (and Jack and Kate of course, perhaps Vincent as well.) I'm sorry that I might not update for a few more days because I've stupidly left myself with three essays to write tomorrow for the following day and I'm going to be busy with school, but hopefully I might get a chapter written Monday night, possibly posting before Lost airs on Wednesday night. Sayid's story is this week. It's annoying, I try to find pictures on the internet and all I get is spoilers for the season 2! That won't be in England for like 2 years!  
Sam  
Xx**

Kate awoke feeling more comfortable than she had been in years. Still feeling the last remains of sleeping ebbing at her, she kept her eyes closed, engulfing herself in the warmth around her. It took her a moment to realise that the clean sheets, thick duvet, and plump pillows meant that she was no longer on the island, and she remembered being rescued the previous morning. She smiled at the fact that she no longer had to wake up and have to eat wild boar or fish. She wouldn't have to bathe beneath a waterfall or in a stream. She wouldn't have to hope that water was available for them all that day. She wouldn't spend the day feeling edgy, waiting for a disaster to happen. She wouldn't feel worried that Jack was over working himself.

No, today was going to be good. Food was once again all around her. Water was a surplus. In the room leading off opposite her there was a large bath and shower, each of them so tempting that she didn't know which to have first. No disaster could reach them here, where they were safe amongst civilisation once again. Jack was released of his leadership duties...

The thought made her open her eyes, but the room around her didn't come into focus. She suddenly realised how many changes they had made on the island, and how used to them they had become. Jack had said before that he had long hours at the hospital. Would he go back into that habit? She used to be on the run all the time - would she have reason to go again? Worrying about the pair of them brought on worries for the rest of her friends. Would Sun and Jin drift further apart again now that Jin would no doubt be returning to work, and would they go back to Hong Kong? How would Charlie cope being introduced back into a world of drug abuse? What would specialist child doctors have to say about Aaron's growth? Jack had said that the baby was smaller than most at his age, did that have more to do with the island than they originally thought? And what about Michael and Walt, would their relationship change after they had worked so hard to rebuild it?

"What's on your mind?" She heard from above her. Looking up she saw Jack gazing down at her. She had realised that he was awake, and curled closer to him.

"Nothing important." She told him, moving her head from his shoulder to his chest.

He picked up a loose strand of her hair and toyed with it with his fingers. "You looked like you were thinking pretty hard." He told her.

She smiled. That was Jack, always paying attention to detail. "Just wondering about all the changes everyone's going to have." She replied simply.

"None of them can be worse than what we've already adapted to." He declared, and she agreed. How could anything be worse than having to survive on a dangerous island for a year with limited supplies and dire situations behind every turn?

Kate was about to reply when she felt a burning sensation rise up from her stomach. Without saying a word to Jack she flew from underneath the bedclothes and into the bathroom, where all the gorgeous food she had eaten last night ended up in the toilet. Jack was right behind her, but she didn't realise until she felt his fingers rake her hair away from her face. "You ok?" He asked her.

She nodded. "Guess I'll have to get used to this." She said with a shaky laugh.

"Don't worry." Jack said. "Morning sickness only lasts for the first few months tops."

"What a relief." She said with a sigh, sitting back against him. She thought hard for a moment. "Jack, do you think we'll be good parents?" She asked him.

He smiled. "'Course we will." He told her. "We're going to turn out to be a right typical family." He said in posh accent that made her laugh. "No, seriously, we'll do fine. Just ignore what Shannon said about inheritance." He pointed out, remembering 'danger baby' with a supressed laugh.

Jack showered, and then went back into the bedroom, where Kate had curled underneath the duvet again, huddling herself into a tight ball with the blanket wrapped around her. Her head was buried so far into the pillow that only her chocolate curls could be seen over the blankets. Standing and watching her with a small smile of content on his face, he could see the rising and falling of the shape of her curled body from her breathing. Thinking she was asleep, he dressed as quietly as possible. When he finished, however, he turned to see two glowing brown eyes watching him playfully.

"You checking me out?" He asked her slyly, remembering their times on the island where that line had been started.

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

He went over to the bed, grinning, and sat down before her, leaning over to kiss her passionately. "Good." He whispered when they broke apart. "Now, are you going to get out of bed or not?" He asked with a small laugh.

Kate grinned, and shook her head. "No. Too comfy." She told him, and curled back down into a ball.

Jack laughed out loud. "Come on, get up." He encouraged, seeking out her hand and tugging it from underneath the blankets, grinning wider at her whines of protest.

"Jack, I haven't been in a bed this comfortable for way too long, let me enjoy it." She pleaded, lifting her head from the pillow before letting it drop back again.

"You can enjoy it anytime." He pointed out, but she already had a counter comment planned ahead.

"If that's so then I choose to enjoy it now." She said with a smile playing on her lips.

"That's a shame." Jack said, rising from the bed and going over to one of the bags of clothes from the previous day, pulling a packet out of it and holding it behind his back. "I guess I'll go eat it on my own."

Kate frowned and looked up from the pillow. "Eat what on your own?" She asked.

Jack grinned. "Oh, nothing." He said innocently. "Just something I picked up yesterday. But, if you want to stay in bed," He produced a bar of milk chocolate from behind his back and watched Kate's eyes light up, "then I guess I'll have to eat it all myself."

"Jack Sheppard, you are a cruel man." She said unfairly, unable to make the choice between the lovely comfortable bed, and the no doubt wonderful tasting chocolate. Like Jack had said, she could enjoy the bed anytime, but would he really eat a whole bar to himself if she chose to stay in bed? She decided it was not worth the risk, the chocolate was too important to sacrifice. Bed could wait. Comfort could, must, wait. Hunger must be satisfied. Precious chocolate must be rescued from the evil doctor.

Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, she sighed. "All right, all right." She surrendered. "I'm up." She said. "Hand it over."

Jack grinned. "Nope." Kate jumped up, but he rushed out the door and down the hall. She stood in the doorway watching his retreating form. He looked over his shoulder at her. "See you at breakfast, Kate." He said innocently.

After Kate had showered and dressed, she dried her hair and prepared to go after her chocolate. She went down the hall and into the dining area, where she saw Jack eating with the others. He had his back turned to her, and it was only Hurley who saw her approaching. She put her finger to her lips, and he quickly looked away from her, pretending he hadn't seen her. She moved carefully, as she had done many times before, and crept up slowly behind Jack. She waited behind him for a few moments, and Shannon and Claire noticed her arrival, looking sneakily at her, waiting to see what she would do. She waited until he didn't have food in his mouth, after all, she didn't want him to choke. Finally, she got her chance, and somehow managed to tackle him out of his chair and onto the floor.

Everyone around them erupted in laughter at the sight of surprise on Jack's face when Kate had grabbed him. He was trapped on the floor by Kate sitting on his stomach. "Care to reconsider?" She asked him, knowing that he knew what she meant. Cocking her eyebrown for effect, she watched him stubbornly. As they were the only group in the dining hall that early, no one seemed bothered by their position. He smirked.

"Um...can't I take what's behind door number 2?" He asked her.

"Jack, honey, right now, you have three choices." She told him, making sure that she grinned confidently at her fellow females as she did so.

"Really? What are they?"

"Number one: You give me the chocolate, I don't hurt you, and we're all happy." She said.

"Too easy." He said with a roll of the eyes.

"Number two: I remove the chocolate myself. It will hurt."

"Nah, you wouldn't do that." He said confidently.

"Number three: I like to vary the details a little, but you are unable to walk for a week and I get the chocolate."

Jack thought this over. Did he really want to cross a pregnant, chocolate-craving Kate?

Behind them, Sawyer laughed. "Never come between a pregnant woman and her chocolate." He advised.

Ten minutes later, Kate sat contently next to Jack at the table, munching happily on a well-earned bar of chocolate, whilst Jack nursed the beginnings of a bruise on his upper arm.


	4. Emergency

**Thanks, as always, to my reviewers. I feel very very very bad about not updating, so here you go, two at once. I'd like to announce that I have now seen all of the first series, and the first episode of the second series :D:D:D:D:D has party in mind Thanks to my mate :D So I know what's going on now. I know about Ethan, and SPOLIER as soon as I saw Desmond in Jack's flashback, I knew who was in the hatch. So here's the next chapter, even though lots of people might hate me for this.  
Sam  
xx  
**  
A few months passed, and the survivors began to regain their lives in civilisation. Charlie and Claire decided to stay in Sydney to raise Aaron together. No one had been more proud that Charlie when Aaron's first word was 'da-da' aimed at him. It brought tears to his and Claire's eyes. Sometimes, Aaron would sit and babble, occassionally mumbling the odd coherant word, usually da-da, and but he rarely spoke words other than names. He knew 'Jack-Jack' and 'Kate', who were his Godparents. Then there was 'Sun-Sun', 'Soy-soy' (his only way of pronoucing Sawyer), and 'Hur-hur' for Hurley.

Shannon and Sayid also stayed in Sydney, if only temporarily to make plans. Shannon wanted to travel elsewhere still, and Sayid, naturally, wanted to go with her. They decided to make a home ground in Sydney with the others before rushing off around the world. After all, they wanted somewhere to come back to. None of the others could see why they were rushing to get back on a plane again. Two months after they left the island, Shannon discovered that she was also pregnant, and Kate was glad not to have to go through pregnancy alone.

Jack and Kate got their own place, only a five minute walk from Claire and Charlie. It was a family sized house, with four bedrooms, one of which Jack was going to turn into a study. He wanted to back to being a doctor, but didn't want to be working all the time and missing out on Kate's pregnancy and his child growing up, so he came up with the solution of starting his own practice, by where there would be no long hours, and definately no night shifts. Kate was thrilled at this, as she had secretly dreaded him sinking back into hospital life. Kate had started to show now, and proudly wore her steadily growing bump.

Jack was out finalising the progress of his practice, and so Kate was joined by the three women in her garden. Shannon was slightly showing herself now, but her stomach was no where near as defined as Kate's was becoming.

"Have you thought of any names?" Claire asked her when conversation turned to her pregnancy once again.

"A little." She said. "We don't want to know what we're having though, we want to leave it a surprise." Her and Jack had talked a lot about the scan where the sex of the baby could be determined. She didn't want to know though, it took all the fun out of guessing.

"What about names?" Shannon repeated Claire's question. "Come on, girl, spill."

Kate laughed. "For a girl, we're thinking about Megan, and for a boy, probably Harley." She told them. "What about you, Shan?" She said, turning to Shannon.

"Sayid and I want something unique. So we're going with Asher-Boone for a boy, and Jessyn for a girl." She said proudly. They all knew that Boone's name would somehow make up their son's name - a lasting tribute to the uncle they would never know.

"Lovely." Sun said. "Beautiful names for no doubt beautiful children." She declared. Kate felt slightly bad that Sun had been with Jin for so long, yet had no child of their own. She had already asked all three women to be godmothers, and they were asking Charlie, Hurley and Sayid to be godfathers.

Kate stood up to get more drinks. She was only four months pregnant, and already she could feel the strains on her back beginning. Behind her, the girls continued talking, as she had refused their offers to come help her. "I'm pregnant, not an invalid." She told them for the upteenth time.

She picked up the glasses that she had brought the other day at a home and leisure store with Jack, having liked the bright floral design on them. Putting them on the tray, she filled a fresh pitcher with fruit juice and went to go back into the garden. She got out of the patio doors, and was almost to the other women again when a pain ripped through her stomach, and she doubled over clutching her stomach, the tray crashing to the ground.

They were on their feet and at her side in an instant. The pain didn't fade, and Kate could hear Claire giving instructions to the others. "Sun, call an ambulance, Shannon, get Jack here now. Kate, don't worry, you're going to be fine." Kate wondered what was going on at first, it felt vaugely like when she had appendicitis as a child, but she knew that there was no chance of that, and cried out in alarm when she felt blood running slowly down between her legs. Tears welled in her eyes, _oh no, please no._

Everything happened in a blur. The ambulance came before Jack could arrive, and Kate was rushed to hospital. Claire was at her side, and Sun had followed with Shannon and baby Aaron in the car. Paramedics leaned over her, asking her her name, her age, how far along she was. She answered nonchalently, then asked what was happening, but no one told her. She asked Claire, but Claire didn't get an answer out of the paramedics either. All the time, Kate wanted Jack. Jack was a doctor, he could deal with whatever was happening. He could help her. Before she got to the hospital, she passed out, and didn't wake up for a long time.

Jack almost dropped the phone when he hung up. Locke was standing to the side of him, watching him intently. He had dropped by to see the development of his practice, when Shannon had rung him urgently. It had taken him long enough to get her to calm down enough to speak coherantly.

"Jack, what's the matter?" Locke asked him.

"That was Shannon." He said, his voice sounding hoarse. "Kate collapsed... She's bleeding... They think she might be having a - a..." He couldn't say it. So he grabbed his car keys and rushed out of the building, Locke following him at run. They got into Jack's car and made their way to the hospital, where Shannon had told him to meet her.

**Ok, ok, ok, please don't hate me! Trust me, it's not all bad!**


	5. Stranger's Advice

Shannon flagged them down, and they followed her into the hospital. Jack's mind was a blur. All he could think about was what Shannon had said on the phone. "We think she's having a miscarriage." That final word echoed constatly in his head. He could lose them both. Why was it happening? She hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't placed the baby in any danger. How could this be happening to them.

They raced through the hospital, finally spotting Sun outside a ward, with Aaron asleep on her hip.

"Where is she?" Jack asked. No 'hello's' or 'what's happenings'; all he cared about was Kate.

Sun indicated to the ward. "In there. Claire went with her."

Jack went into the ward, and looked around. Other people were in there, some on ventilators, some chatting with their families. An old man of about sixty was playing chess with what Jack deduced to be his grandson. There, in the far corner of the room, was Kate. He made his way across the room. She was on her side, curled into a ball, her hands around her stomach. Tears were on her face, but she wasn't sobbing anymore, although the tears were still fresh.

Claire looked up from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed, and walked over to him, Kate not even noticing she was gone from holding her hand. She stopped infront of Jack, preventing him from getting closer, but she embraced him quickly instead.

"Jack, I'm sorry." She said softly.

"No." He said shaking his head. "This can't be happening..."

"They've done some sort of test, I don't know what it is, but they won't do a scan until the results are back. It could be a few hours." Claire explained.

Jack snapped back into reality. "Wait...so...it might...the baby might still be alive?" He asked hopefully.

Claire nodded, and Jack smiled weakly. "They've told Kate not to get her hopes up, as it's a very slim chance."

Jack nodded, and Claire left, leaving him alone with Kate. He could feel the eyes of the man in the next bed, who was alone, bearing into him, watching his every move.

He sat down beside Kate, where Claire had been sitting, and picked up her hand, leaning in to kiss her forehead. She reacted by putting both arms around his neck, and sitting up with him, holding tightly onto him.

"I'm sorry, Jack." She wept, her voice coming on sobs that brought fresh tears with them.

"Hey," He said, his voice sounding shaky as well. "Don't you be sorry, all right?" He told her. "None of this was your fault." He could feel tears in his own eyes now, and he fought them back.

"It can't be dead, Jack." She told him, still crying. "I can still feel it there. I know it."

Being a doctor, he had seen this reaction before, but seeing it coming from Kate was more than his heart could take, and knowing that it was his child was even worse.

"Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine, Kate." He told her. "Remember what they said, there's still a chance."

"A small one." She pointed out.

"But a chance all the same." He reminded. She nodded against him, and he rubbed her back, feeling her hiccups as she cried. Somehow, she managed to fall asleep through her crying, and Jack shifted so that she was laying against him with his back against the headboard. People came and checked the other people in the ward, and Jack asked every one of them that came close enough whether Kate's results were in, but they couldn't tell him.

"Don't give up hope." Came a voice from beside him. Jack turned his head to see the man who was watching him earlier speaking to him. "Ken Bromley." He introduced.

"Jack Sheppard."

"I knew your name." Ken told him. "That little lady didn't stop repeating it until you got here. It was all she was saying. So, you the Daddy of her young one?"

Jack felt his throat becoming dry. "Yeah...if..."

Ken shook his head. "No point in 'ifs' or 'buts'. You've gotta live in the here and now, son." It felt odd to be called 'son' by a man who was not much older than himself. "You love her?"

"More than anything." Jack whispered.

"Then she don't need nothing else right now." Ken pointed out. "The love of a good man, who she loves, is enough for anyone to get through anything."

"Even this?" Jack asked doubtfully.

"Especially this. You really think she's be better off without you right now?"

Jack was rather insulted by this, but didn't show it. "I'd never leave her side." He promised.

"Well then, there you go." Ken said, as if proving the point that Jack didn't know he was making. "You haven't lost everything, you've still got each other. Heck, if my wife was here now, it would make this operation seem like a doddle." He mused. "But she's not, she's dead, so I have to do this alone, but I know that if she could be here, she would." Jack fell silent. "It's still there, you know."

"What?"

"The young'un. It's still there."

Jack swallowed back the lump in his throat. "How do you know that?"

"Look at her face." Jack did, and found that even scared, teary, and puffy eyed, she was still beautiful. "She's got that mother-look still. Deep down, she knows that she's still got her baby, and that it's gonna take hell to take it away from you both."

Their conversation came to an abrupt hault as a familiar doctor entered the ward and came over to Kate and Jack. Ken went back to the newspaper he was reading. "Jack? Jack Sheppard?" He asked.

"Hi Dan." Jack replied half-heartedly.

"Jeez, man, I didn't expect it to be you here."

"Dan, can you tell me anything about Kate's condition?" He asked desperately. "No one's told us anything, please?"

"You know how it is in these places, Jack. Seems like ten seconds to the doctors, but ten years to the patients." He stopped exaggurating the point and looked down at the notes. "Kate Austen, yeah?" He double checked, Jack nodded. "I've come to bring her in for a scan." He announced.

"What did the tests say?" Jack asked, before making any move to wake Kate up.

"What tests?"

"Apparenly she's had some tests."

Dan shrugged. "No idea, sorry, Karly just told me to bring her for a scan."

Kate gradually woke up, and was taken in for a scan. Jack went in with her, and hse refused to let go of his hand, which he was glad for, because he was getting just as much comfort from it as she was. The scan began, and it was only a few moments until...

"There we are, Ms Austen." And Karly, the midwife, pointed to the screen.

Kate looked from the screen to Karly, and then to Jack. "What...?"

"You see right there, thats your children." She said.

Kate started crying, and held onto Jack, simply with relief. Their baby was all right, but it was Jack who questioned her words. "Wait...Children?"

"Thats, right Jack." She said to her old med school buddy, "Twins. Right there." She pointed out the two different heartbeats, and then gave them the picture to take with them.

Neither of them could explain what had happened, but when they went back to the ward, because Kate was to be kept in overnight, he saw that most of their friends were now gathered outside. They stopped, and stood in silence for a moment. There was Shannon, Sayid, Claire, Charlie, Aaron, Sun, Hurley, even Sawyer was there. The southern man was first to speak.

"You OK, Freckles?" He asked, when no one else made a move or sound.

Kate was still in disbelief. She nodded slowly. "Yeah..." Then her grin widened, as the news finally sunk in. "Yeah, fantastic."

The others looked at her in a mixture of shock and confusion. Jack held out his arm and showed off the photograph of the scan of their twins. Claire took it, and everyone crowded around to get a look in.

"Wait a minute..." Claire said. "Does this mean..."

Kate nodded. "They're alive." She said, her voice breaking, and Jack tightened his arm around her.

"They?" Sawyer asked.

"Twins." Jack said. "We're having twins."


	6. Here Is Your Paradise

**This chapter fasts forwards a lot at the end, and the beginning of the next chapter will have skipped until the kids are older. **

Once Kate knew that her babies were healthy and alive, she couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. In general, she hated to be near them, unless she absolutely had no choice, Jack knew this, which is why he stayed with her, sleeping in the chair beside her bed. She slept for a few hours, but when the dawn came and Jack woke up, she was already awake, with her hand on her stomach protectively.

"Hey, sleepyhead." She said playfully when Jack rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

He checked his watch. "Well this is a first." He said. Kate cocked an eyebrow in question. "It's only 5am, and you're already awake."

Kate laughed quietly, not wanting to wake anyone else up. "Just can't wait to get out of here." She told him, and he grinned, picking up her hand and kissed it. She turned so that she was lying on her side facing him. "Twins.." She whispered. "I wonder what they'll be."

"My guess is two boys." Jack said.

"No way, we're having girls!" She corrected him.

"Boys."

"Girls."

"Boys."

"Girls."

"Boys."

"Girls."

This argument carried on for a long time - right up until the birth. When shopping for abby clothes, which led to them buying sets of both pink and blue; When they went for the scan where they could have found out the sex of the babies, but decided to wait to prove each other wrong; even when Kate was experiencing her first contractions, the arguments were going on in the ambulance.

Once the labour had fully kicked in though, the arguments stopped. Jack stayed at her side, while Charlie and Claire, who had been with them at the time, waited outside in the corridor, asking Jack for updates whenever he rushed out to get Kate another drink of water. She was in labour in total for 8 hours, which was definately too long in her frame of mind. When she heard the first baby cry, it was worth it though.

"It's a boy."

Jack kissed her and tucked back the stray peices of hair that had fallen from her ponytail. "See," He said, "I told you. You ok?"

She nodded. "Absolutely perfect."

"Ok, Ms Austen, here comes the other one."

Kate pushed, and soon there was the sound of another baby crying in the room.

"This one's a girl."

Kate sat back and smirked. "See, I told you." She repeated at Jack. They kissed again, and their children were brought over to them. Kate was given their son whilst Jack was given their daughter. This was enough to send Kate into tears, looking down at her children for the first time, that she had carried for eight months.

She looked up at Jack, to see tears forming in his eyes as well. "They're so beautiful." He said, kissing Kate again. "Thank you."

"Looks like we were both right." She told him. "Still keeping the rule?"

She was referring to the rule they had that meant that Jack would name one twin and Kate would name the other. Jack nodded. They had changed their minds, not out of dislike for their originally chosen names, but because Kate had decided that she wouldn't know which name suited her children until she saw them.

"Evelyn." He said, confidently, nodding as he looked down at his daughter. "She looks like an Evie." Kate nodded, showing she agreed, and then they both looked at their son.

"What about, Evan? Evander." She suggested.

"Yeah...Evie and Evan." Jack said, testing the names out. "I love them."


	7. Family

Many years passed, bringing with it more arrivals for the survivors. The twins, now twelve years old, were so similar in appearance, but so different in mind. Both had Kate's deep brown eyes, and Jack's dark hair. Evander kept his short, like Jack's, thus looking more like his father every day, and Evelyn's hair grew thick and curly, exactly like Kate's did, curling down past her shoulder and settling halfway down her back. She had been growing it since she was five years old, and was proud of how long she kept it now. Evander had also taken an interest in becoming a doctor, just like Jack, and this had worried Jack, who was frightened temporarily of turning into his own father, but now he realised the difference between encouragement and sheer force. Evelyn, however, was more interested in arts than science, and was always dancing around the house singing to herself.

Four years after the twins were born, Kate and Jack had another child, Jasmine, who was always trying to be more like her older sister. Sometimes it seemed more like Evelyn and Jasmine were twins than Evelyn and Evander. Jasmine was already showing promising talent with artwork, and had produced so many drawings at the age of eight that used skill rivalling that of a girl twice her age. Then came the Sheppard's final child, Amy, the little toddler, aged one, who was starry eyed and curious.

While Aaron grew into a increasingly handsome thirteen year old, it was clear to see that he was becoming more like his surrogate father, Charlie, more and more. When they had arrived back from the island, Charlie had adopted Aaron, and while Aaron knew about his real father, Thomas, he didn't care to meet him or to think of him as his father, especially seeing as he called Charlie 'Dad'. He looked exactly like his mother, Claire, with his blonde hair and blue eyes that drove all the girls wild at school, of course, and his ambition to be a famous singer wasn't going amiss. Charlie had taught him how to play the guitar himself.

Charlie and Claire had another child of their own, another son, whom they named Taylor. At the age of nine, Taylor looked up to Aaron a lot, but also got on with Jack and Kate's daughter, Jasmine, who was just a year younger than him. The pair went to the same school, and were in the same class, and their mothers were already prediticing the youngsters wedding in their minds.

Shannon and Sayid's child was a daughter, Ashley, who had her father's tanned skin, which Shannon was always envious of, and but she had her mother's blonde hair and fair eyes. They travelled a lot, so Ashley, having just turned twelve herself, was always one for knowing about the history and culture of the countries they visited. It wasn't long before they had another child, a son, whom they named Boone, after Shannon's lost brother. Boone was ten years old now, and Shannon swore every day that he had his uncle's spirit in him when it came to troublemaking.

Sawyer had somehow remained single, returning to his womanising ways and refusing to prove Kate right on her remark that one day he would settle down and raise a family. He was, though, the best choice for a babysitter, which had been discovered back on the island with Aaron when he was young. As much as he claimed to hate kids, the kids sure loved it when mom and dad went out and Sawyer came to babysit.

Walt was now married with a child of his own, Rebecca, who was two years old, but he lived over in LA with his wife, Latisha, and with Michael close by. Sometimes, he would fly his new family out to Sydney to see the family he had when they had lived on the island, but now that Rebecca was growing up, they rarely saw them, but kept in constant touch by email, usually from Michael showing off proud photographs of his grandchild's first steps, first curls, and other firsts.

Locke, although now approaching his eighties, was still around, living just on the outskirts of Sydney. He still visited a lot, especially to see the kids who saw him as a kind of grandfather. Hurley was another frequent visitor, when he wasn't travelling around the world with the remains of his lottery win. They were forever getting postcards from him, and it was Evelyn especially who saved them all, ones from Antigua; Venice; India; Peru; and even the less exotic and charming ones...like Las Vegas.

Once a month, all the survivors available got together for a gathering, which in the summer was usually a barbecue in Kate and Jack's lovely back garden, and in the winter was normally everyone in the garden, or crammed into someone's living room while the kids ran riot.

Jack went downstairs one morning to see that everyone, for once, was up before him. Usually on a monday morning he would hit the alarm, say goodmorning to Kate, before showering and trapsing downstairs with Kate for his coffee and breakfast. Then, half an hour later, the daily struggle to get the kids out of bed, dressed and into school began. He always went into Evelyn's room first, knowing that after he went into Evan's and Jasmine's he'd have to go into Evelyn's again and wake her back up. She loved her sleep more than anything, but when she eventually got out of bed, she was on the go all day.

"Ok. I've walked into another dimension again." Jack declared when he saw all his children up, dressed, eating breakfast, and most suprising, cheerful. He went behind Kate, who was fixing up some coffee, and put his arms around her waist kissing her on the cheek. She handed him his coffee and he sat down between the twins while she began feeling Amy, who was currently smearing her breakfast over her face.

Evelyn and Evan were chatting amongst themselves while Jasmine talked to Kate, and Jack listened quietly. He still wondered what things would have been like if they had never crashed on the island, but he never dwelled on it long, because he knew that those thoughts would mean no Kate, no twins, no Jasmine, no Amy, none of his friends, nothing; simply a dead father, a depressed mother, and an ex wife who still loved him.

Soon the school rush began, and the twins were upstairs putting their things in their bags while Jasmine, already ready to go, sat in the living room on the couch, watching television while Amy played happily on the floor with her toys. Jack stood in the doorway, watching them, and Kate came up behind him.

"Are you gonna remember to pick the kids up?" Kate asked him. Usually Jack took them in the mornings on his way to work, and Kate would meet Jasmine in the afternoons while the twins walked home together or with their friends.However, they knew that if Jack was picking them up and they wouldn't have to walk they'd rather have the lift home.

"Yes, I won't forget them." He assured her with a smile, remembering a time when he had picked Jasmine up, driven all the way home, got into the driveway, and forgotten the twins. "Besides, I'm sure Aaron will grab a lift as well." Aaron was nearly always dropping into their house unexpecantly. Whenever Claire couldn't find her son all she had to do was ring them and Aaron would be found. Jack checked his watch. "They're gonna be late." He sighed.

"You say that every morning, and they never are." Kate laughed, and Jack pulled her close, kissing her gently. When footsteps came stampeeding down the stairs they pulled apart and Jack kissed her quickly.

"See you later." He said. He looked over at Jasmine, who was so engrossed in her television programme that she barely noticed the sound that the twins had made on the stairs. "Jazz, you ready?"

She nooded and stood up, coming over to her parents. Kate hugged her daughter, placing a kiss atop of her head. "Bye sweetie."

"Bye Mommy." She said in the Australian accent which she had picked up through school and from living there all her life.

Kate said goodbye to the twins and the four of them left for school and work. Jasmine got into the passenger seat of the car while the twins sat in the back. Evan leaned straight over and put the radio on, which blasted out some music that Jack didn't know, but had probably heard blaring through the stereo in his sons room before. He turned it down a little bit, but only because at its current volume Jasmine was covering her ears.

"Remember Sawyer's looking after you all tonight." Jack reminded.

Evelyn looked up. "What?" She said. "Since when?"

Jack smiled to himself, there was that selective hearing again. "Since about two weeks ago. It's parents night at your school, and we're all catching a movie afterwards, which leaves you with Sawyer."

"So thats us four, Aaron, Taylor, Ashley and Boone." Evan counted. "Eight of us, one of him."

"Seven of us." Evelyn corrected. "You know that Amy will be on his side no doubt."

"Ok, seven of us, think he can handle it?" Evan challenged.

Evelyn smirked. "Not a chance. What do you think, Jazz?"

Jasmine pounded one fist into the other. "This time he's going down." Jack laughed at his kids.

"Is it too late to tell you to behave?" He asked, looking in the rear view mirror at his twins who were smirking evilly to themselves. All three children nodded, and Jack sighed. He did feel sorry for Sawyer sometimes, especially when he was at the mercy of a whole group of children.

As they pulled up to Evie and Evan's school, they grabbed their bags and were about to hop out of the car when Evan stopped. "Oh Dad, just checking. Brachial artery...pumps thirty litres of blood per minute, and there's only five in the human body?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah thats right, good luck with the exam, guys." He said.

"I think I need it more than he does." Evie said nervously. "He knows everything about science. I only kow the difference between hydrogen and helium because hydrogen doesn't make your voice go all high." She said and Jack laughed.

"Don't worry, honey, you'll do fine."

He watched them disappear into the school, and then drove off towards Jasmine's which was only three blocks away.

"Daddy, what's a personal hero?" Jasmine asked. "I thought it was like, Spiderman, or Batman, but my teacher said it wasn't."

"Well, a personal hero is someone who is your hero." Jack explained.

"Like my own Spiderman?" She asked.

"Not really, more someone you look up to, someone you want to be like. Someone who you think is amazing and wonderful. Thats your hero." He told her.

Jasmine made a face showing she understood. "Oh, who's your hero, Daddy?"

Jack thought hard. It used to be his father, but he had grown out of that a long time ago. Since his teenage years though, it had been one person that he had looked up to and wanted to be like.

"Have you ever heard of Jon Bon Jovi?" He asked her.

"Is that the man that Mummy listens to in the kitchen?" Jasmine asked.

Jack nodded. "That's my hero. Who's your hero."

"It's a secret." She told him dramatically.

They pulled up outside the school, and Jack was ready for the same routine that happened every day when he dropped Jasmine off.

"I love you Daddy, and you love me too, don't you?" She said chirpily.

"With all my heart, sweetie, have a nice day." He leaned over in his seat and kissed her forehead before she jumped out of the car and went into the school. Jack began the drive to his surgery, reminding himself to remember to pick them up.


	8. Kerry Rom

Once in school, Evelyn and Evan went to find their friends. They found Aaron, as usual, sitting on the wall outside the school doors, waiting for them, and Ashley they found in the library. Together they walked to their usual hang out in the canteen, which was near deserted seeing as it was no where near lunchtime.

"Do we have a plan of action for tonight?" Aaron asked. "Or shall we go with the flow?"

Having Sawyer babysit was a big event for them. It was like a monthly Halloween, full of tricks and treats.

"Lets go with the flow." Evelyn suggested. "We've been planning a lot recently, and he'll expect that."

"Yeah." Evan agreed. "Let's just go out of our way to be awkward and inconvenient."

The bell rang overhead, and Evelyn, Ashley, and Evan went to their form class, while Aaron went to another corridor for his, promising to meet them at lunch. Evelyn and Ashley were talking about a film that had been on television the night before, while Evan just followed them, going over his revision for the science test in his head.

They took their seats just as their tutor, Mr Keaton, came into the room. When he did, the girls stopped talking, especially when they realised that he was followed by a girl they hadn't seen before.

Evan leaned over to Evelyn. "Look, fresh meat for the crows." He pointed over to where the popular girls were looking interestingly at the new girl.

"Ok, boys and girls," Mr Keaton began. "First off, I'd like to introduce a new student. This is Kerry Rom." The class all mumbled their hellos, and Mr Keaton turned to Kerry. "Kerry, would you like to tell us about yourself?"

Kerry, although seeming shy, had a surprisingly confident voice, but then again, who wouldn't be shy in a school full of people who she had never met before. "Well, uh, I just moved here with my Dad, and I've been to nine different schools in two years because we move around a lot, so that makes it hard for me to make friends. We've been all over Australia travelling, and I was homeschooled by my mother for a while until she died when I was eight."

Mr Keaton told Kerry to take a seat beside Ashley, and feeling in a particularly good mood, and not wanting her to get picked to peices by the popular just yet, Evelyn and Ashely made her feel welcome.

"Hi Kerry, I'm Ashley Jarrah, this is Evelyn and Evan Sheppard." Ashley introduced.

"I'm Kerry Rom." She said with a smile.

"Rom?" Evan asked. "Like, R-O-M?"

"Yeah." She said. "Rom."


	9. Breathless

Come lunchtime, the kids were all sat in the canteen, Evelyn and Ashley had spent most of the morning with Kerry, much to Evan's distaste. He was glad to see Aaron at lunch, who came over to their table with his lunch. "Hey guys..." He trailed off and then saw Kerry, "...And guys I've never seen before in my life."

Evelyn laughed when Aaron looked around for some explanation after taking a seat beside Evan. "Aaron, this is Kerry, she's new here." She explained.

"Oh right, guess I'd better be polite." He said and cleared his throat, extending his hand, and putting on a posh British accent. "Godday young lady, 'tis wonderful to meet you." Ashley rolled her eyes and smacked Aaron around the head, and he recoiled, but Kerry laughed.

"Kerry's been all around the world." Ashley said, finally glad to have someone to talk about different countries with besides her parents or Hurley on his rare visits.

"Yeah, but unlike you, I don't like it." Kerry intervened. "You try living in a different place every few months because your Dad insists that you're just 'not in the right place' It's ridiculous." She said.

"So what made your Dad choose this place then?" Evan asked.

Kerry shrugged, making her shiny brown hair dip down her shoulders for a moment. "No idea. He says that he's near some old friends here, wanted to give it a try. So if I'm not here tomorrow we've probably moved on." She laughed. "He says he could land a big job here as well."

"What does he do?" Aaron asked with his mouth half full of a sandwich, getting an extra slap round the head from Evelyn this time, who reached across the table to get to him. He swallowed his food. "Sorry, what does he do?"

"He's in medicine." She said. "Works with prescriptions and anti-biotics."

"Really?" Evelyn said. "My Dad's a surgeon. Well, was a surgeon. He runs his own practice now. What's your Dad's name, I'll tell him."

Kerry took a bite of her own sandwich, which Evan had been eyeing and deciding that he wouldn't go near with a ten foot pole. "Ethan Rom." She said. "He'll be really thankful for that, I'm sure."

When she said her father's name, Aaron choked on a bit of his sandwich. He struggled for a few moments before Evan clapped him on the back and Aaron was able to breath again. He took a long drink from his can and thanked Evan with a strained voice. "Cheers, man."

"No problem, eyes bigger than your mouth?" He laughed.

"Nah, just went down the wrong way." He brushed off, casting a suspicious look at Kerry, who was chatting away obliviously to Evelyn. Her name. It was familiar to him. All too familiar...

Back at the Sheppard house, Kate had just finished giving Amy her lunch, and was sitting in the living room with Claire when the door sounded. She stood up to answer it, and found herself face to face with a cardboard box. "About time Freckles."

"Oh dear God." She said, seeing what was written on the box.

"Naw, just me." Sawyer said in his Southern drawl. "Thought I'd get an early start on controlling these monsters."

He came in, and put the box down on the coffee table in front of Claire. Claire had the same look on her face as Kate did. "Sawyer..."

"What?" He said, standing back and admiring his work of packing the box. "Don't tell me you forgot what day it is?" He said exasperatedly. Claire and Kate exchanged glances. "Bonfire night!" Sawyer cried. He started to empty out the box. "f you guys are out tonight, then these monsters aren't sitting inside watching everyone elses. We're gonna have the biggest fireworks in town."

Inside the box was what Kate calculated to be three hundred dollars worth of fireworks, and about fifty dollars of junk food.

"They're meant to be set off about a hundred meters away or some shit like that, but i figure your garden's good." He said, taking a vacant seat.

Kate picked up one box titled "Death Bomb" raised a worried eyebrow. "Sawyer, our garden is only sixty meters long." She pointed out.

"And last year you let Aaron and Evan light then on their own." Claire reminded.

Sawyer looked at them. "And thats bad because...?"

"Because they were twelve and eleven!"

Sawyer waved it off. "They survived didn't they?"

"It took a week for Aaron's eyebrows to grow back!" Claire protested.

"Did wonders for his rock image if you ask me."

Arguing with Sawyer was useless. He was one big kid himself, and they knew that he would probably get the biggest kick out of lighting these fireworks. Last year he had provided them all with fireworks, and next door's rabbit had died of a heart attack during the night. This year, they had a litter of baby rabbits, and twice as many fireworks. Kate was glad they were on holiday this time around. She never worried about leaving the kids with Sawyer though, they all loved him, and she knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to them. If they'd let him, he'd probably have the standing behind bullet-proof glass with eye masks on for sparklers.

"Whatever, Sawyer, but seriously, be careful." Kate warned.

"I will." He said half-heartedly, like a kid would when they were sick and tired of hearing the same thing over again. Inside though, he was grinning, this would be a night to remember.

The phone rang and Kate answered it, and it was the school. After a few minutes, she hung up and dialed the number for Jack's office. She waited a moment while the secretary put her through and finally he answered.

"Hey, Kate. Everything Ok?"

"You busy?" She asked.

"Not anymore." He said.

"Good. I need you to go by the school."

"Which one?"

"Evie's having another asthma attack." Kate explained. "And you have the car."

"What?" Jack explained.

"She left her inhaler in the car this morning, and she's just tried to attempt doing a relay. Teacher didn't even notice until Evan pointed it out." Kate said. "Can you take it to her?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course. Want me to drop her off home?" He said, "Or bring her back here?"

"Might be worth taking her back with you, she seems to be having more attacks recently. Maybe she needs a higher dosage." Kate suggested.

"I'll call Brian and see what he thinks." Jack said. "I'll call you when I get back. Love you."

"Love you too." She hung up again and turned to the others. "What am I going to do with that girl?" She sighed.

"Another asthma attack?" Claire said. "That's the third this month, surely?"

Kate shook her head. "Fifth." She corrected. "She keeps on thinking that nothing will happen, or that she won't need it, and then goes ahead and exerts herself anyway." Sometimes her daughter was too much like herself. "Sawyer, she's probably going to be tired tonight, can you make sure you keep an eye on her?" She said.

Sawyer saluted. "Sure thing. Don't worry, Freckles, I'll take good care of her."


	10. These Days

Jack came back about an hour later with Evelyn in tow. Claire was still around, as was Sawyer. Evelyn definately looked peaky still, but her eyes lit up when she saw the box of goodies Sawyer had brought round. She stood and stared at it for a moment, amazed by the quantity of what could have quite easily been illegal fireworks knowing Sawyer. "Woah." She muttered. "That's uh...a lot of fireworks."

Sawyer grinned. "Finally, someone appreciates my efforts." He said, flailing his arms.

Kate stood up and went to hug her daughter. "You Ok, sweetie?" She asked, smoothing her hair instinctively.

Evelyn nodded. "Yeah, all good." She grinned.

She went to sit down between Sawyer and Claire, picking up a rocket that had a diameter of about fifteen inches, and stared at it, contemplating the things she could do with it. Jack held up a paper bag and Kate followed him into the kitchen. "Her new prescription." He announced, setting it on the kitchen top. "It's been raised a little, on a precaution, especially seeing as Evie told me that it wasn't the gym lesson that caused the attack." He said leaning against the counter.

Kate frowned. "Well then, what did?"

Jack shrugged. "She mumbled something, and I vaugely caught 'arguement', 'not our fault' and 'goddamn lunatic'." He told her.

Kate sighed. "Not again." She muttered. Evelyn had an alarming habit of experiencing asthma attacks whenever she got too worked up about something, and arguments were not good things for her.

"I know." Jack hugged her, kissing her softly. "Good morning?" He asked.

She nodded. "Mmm."

After putting Evelyn's new medicine with the rest of it, they went back into the living room, where Jack lifted Amy out of the playpen. "And hows my littlest little girl?" He asked in baby talk, and Amy babbled to herself excitedly.

Kate sat down beside Evelyn on the side of the chair. "Hey," She said quietly, getting her daughter's attention. "Wanna tell me about this argument?" She asked.

Evelyn had a guilty look on her face. "I didn't mean for it to happen." She said. "It was Laura." She said bitterly.

"Laura Talcott?" Kate asked.

Evelyn nodded. She had been in the same class as Laura since primary school, and even then she had been excessively bullied by the other girl. "She started on us in gym." Evelyn explained.

"She 'started on you'?"

"I was talking to Ashley, getting ready for the game, when Laura came over and started being completely unreasonable." She defended.

"How so?" Jack asked, coming over to sit in another vacant chair with Amy in his lap.

Evelyn made something between a sigh and a laugh. "Does the phrase: 'Oh, look it's an out-cast and a half-cast!' count?" She asked, then went into her own little rant. "Goddamn racist little freak. And she says I'm the outcast? At least I have friends. I was ready to tear her face off for being so mean to Ashley. She didn't say anything but I think it upset her, I hope she's Ok. But the nerve on that girl! She's probably just jealous that Ashley goes all around the world and Laura's parents never take her on holiday. Seriously, if it wasn't for Evan holding me back I would have smacked her right across that snobbish face." She started getting too excited.

"Calm down," Jack instructed. "You'll give yourself another attack."

Evelyn took a calming breath. "If I see her without Evan around she's going down." She vowed.

"Which is why I'm glad that the pair of you are inseperable." Kate declared, putting an arm around her daughter's shoulders with a light laugh. "Honestly, the trouble you'd get into without him to keep you on the straight and narrow..."

Evelyn laughed a bit as well. "Yeah thats probably right." She agreed. "But then half of that is HIS idea." She defended.

"Name me one." Jack said with a laugh, not believing her for a second.

"The time we climbed over the back fence to get the ball back and forgot about their dog." Evelyn answered.

"Ok, one time."

"And the time when he told me that tree branch would never snap and I broke my arm."

"I thought that was your idea."

"It was up until I feel to the ground in extreme pain!"

Kate shook her head with a sigh. The connection between father and daughter with these two was a humourous one to watch. God knew that they loved each other dearly, but to watch their banters was funnier than watching Aaron argue with Sawyer.


	11. Starting All Over Again

"Now, be good! And Sawyer, if I find one thing set on fire you're a dead man."

"Does 'thing' include child?"

"Of course it does!"

"Relax, Freckles. Go - have fun without me."

"Sawyer...it's parent's night."

"So."

"You're not a parent."

"...Oh yeah."

Kate shook her head. Sometimes spening too much time with kids had it's effect on Sawyer. Mind you, Evan and Evelyn were probably more mature than him already, not to mention Aaron. Jasmine came over to say goodbye, and Jack kissed her head before she went to Kate who hugged her. She then handed Amy over to Sawyer. "We'll be back around 11. I want Jasmine in bed by nine, there's a bed made up on her bedroom floor for Taylor. Boone's funny in sleeping at other people's houses so he'll probably stay up, but if he falls asleep make sure that he's comfortable - _Do not _leave him at the kitchen table again. Aaron's sleeping on the floor in Evan's room, and Ashley's in Evelyn's, and the four of them are going to bed at ten."

Sawyer took Amy, who squirmed for a moment before settling, and raised an eyebrow. "You're not serious? I'm babysitting and you're giving them bedtimes?"

Jack sighed. "Sawyer, they've got school in the morning."

"You think that these fireworks are gonna be done by nine? Hell no. And I'm not gonna send those kids to bed and set them off on my own." Sawyer argued. "One night won't hurt." He added in.

"Yeah, Mom." Evan piped up. "One night won't hurt." His voice sounded scratchy, probably from the ache he had in his chest.

All the other kids started to chorus in agreement from behind Sawyer. The parents all shook their heads. Eventually they came to the settlement on 'if you're grumpy in the mornings it's your own fault', directed mainly at Evelyn, who rolled her eyes innocently. They said goodbye to their children, and left Sawyer at their mercy.

Sawyer immediately turned to Evan. "What's up with your voice?"

Evan shrugged. "Chest pains." He answered.

"I thought it was Evie who had the attack?" He asked.

"It's always been that way." Aaron explained, looking over at where Evelyn was helping Jasmine and Taylor now to finish her homework. "When Evie has the attacks, Evan feels it as well."

"But you don't have asthma?" Evan shook his head. Sawyer nodded. "Good, well, don't go getting it when I'm here." He said. Evan just shrugged.

"I don't control my chest." He said.

"Well, start to." Sawyer went over into the living room now full with Evan, Evelyn, Aaron, Taylor, Jasmine, Amy, Ashely and Boone. "Here we go again." He muttered to himself, then looked down at Amy who was trying to pull on his hair, but luckily couldn't reach. "At least I've got you on my side." He said to her. "Right, as soon as Jazz and Tay are done with their work, we'll get started on the fireworks."

Of course, mentioning fireworks while they were still working was a big mistake, and they looked at each other before all seven of the older children rushed over to the back door, waiting for Sawyer.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked them.

"The garden." They all said together.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Sawyer asked, nodding his head behind him to the coat railing.

"But its not even cold!" Boone protested.

"Maybe not. But you don't get sparklers unless you're wearing gloves." He told them, and they all rushed around just as quickly to get their coats on with gloves. Sawyer grinned to himself, yeah, he could handle them all no problem.

* * *

Over at the school, Shannon and Sayid went down to the lower school to see Boone's teacher, while Charlie and Claire went to Aaron's, and Jack and Kate to the twins'.

"Ah, Mr and Mrs Shephard?" Mr Keaton said as they entered the room. He shook their hands before sitting back down. "Please, take a seat. It's good to see you again." He said with that large grin that had last year meant that he was going to tell them all the trouble the twins had gotten into so far. "The twins didn't come with you, I see?" He observed.

They had noted that on the way in, some parents had brought their children with them. Last year, however, although Amy, still very young, was left with Sawyer, the others all came, and got up to no good. "No, they're at home with our friend." Jack said. "We thought it might be best not to bring them after last year."

"I understand." Mr Keaton laughed. "First of all. Evander." Kate nearly interrpted him and told him that Evan didn't like being called by his full name, but she held back. "A very good student. Very good." He praised. "His results on the human biology test earlier today were astounding - full marks!"

"He gets that from his father." Kate pointed out.

"I understand that Evander also wishes to work within the medical profession as well?" Mr Keaton checked.

"So far he does." Jack said.

"Well, work wise, I think that he is easily reaching his full potential. However, he can be easily distracted within the lessons, particularly when it involves group work with his sister and miss Jarrah." Keaton continued. "He seems to excel in the more academic fields though, it seems. Unlike his sister."

Kate resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. She had heard all of this before. In all truth, she hated parents night as much as the kids did. She didn't need some teacher telling her that her kids were awful, or how hard they were working. If they were trying their best, that was all that mattered to her. She wasn't about to push them into getting homework done on time if it was going to stress them out. She had never done her homework, and although Jack was the one who was more likely to ask them if they'd finished their work, she would help them when they asked, and she wanted them to come out of life better than she had started out. One particular thing she hated about Mr Keaton was how he always compared the twins rather than seeing them as individual people.

"Evelyn seems to fall behind her brother in academics, but in the arts, she never fails to amaze me." Keaton said. "Her musical ability is one of the best in the school. Does she take piano lessons, may I ask?"

"No." Kate said, nodding her head sideways at Jack. "She learns from her father."

"Picking up that kind of ability is rare, Mr Shephard. Your daughter has quite a talent. When she proceeds up to High School, I strongly suggest that she takes a music course."

Jack had lost track of the amount of times Keaton had suggested this to him. They had asked Evelyn about taking music lessons thousands of times, and every time she said that no, she didn't want to go, she'd rather learn from Jack.

After leaving the room, they met up with Charlie and Claire, who were just walking past the corridor having finished with Aaron's teacher. Shannon and Sayid came over, waiting for their time to see Mr Keaton for Ashley.

Mr Keaton had also come out of the room, and was still talking to Jack about Evelyn's music when another man approached. Keaton stopped the conversation short to greet the man, who looked at everyone around him with specific interest.

"Ah, Mr Rom. So glad you could make it."

"Please, Ethan." He said, holding out his hand.

"I know that Kerry has only been with us for one day, but I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for you to meet the parents of other children as well. Why, what a coincidence, Kerry has been with your children most of the day." Keaton said, turning to Jack, Kate and Shannon with a grin on his face which wasn't reflected in their faces. "Right this way, Mr Rom - sorry, Ethan."

As they disappeared into the room, there was no movement for a moment. "Guys..." Charlie said. "You all saw that, right? I wasn't just imagining it?"

"We all saw him." Jack said. But...Ethan was dead...wasn't he?


	12. Promise of Protection

Claire was the first to speak. "That wasn't..."

"Yeah it was." Jack answered.

"But he's dead!" Charlie said in hushed tones. "How many people do you know who can survive 4 bullets in the chest on an island with limited medical supplies - none of which were used to help him?"

Jack looked from Charlie to the door which Ethan had just walked through, and back again. "One." He said simply.

* * *

"You guys ready?"

Sawyer looked over at the large wooden garden table where all the kids were. Aaron, Ashley, Evelyn and Evan sat along the back, with Amy settled in Evelyn's arms, looking out towards the fireworks. Boone, Jasmine and Taylor sat on the edge with their legs dangling infront of them impatiently.

"Yes!" The younger three called out. Amy picked up on the excitement and clapped her hands together with a squeal of delight.

Sawyer lit the first firework up, and ran over to the others to watch it. He had spent ten minutes wiring several together so they all went off from the same fuse, which meant that they could watch a stunning display of three rockets, a catherine wheel, and few fountains going off at the same time. Amy loved the fountains, while the rest looked constantly with their necks craned upwards. Aaron leaned so far back that he had to catch himself before he fell off the table. The others didn't see this luckily, and he pretended nothing had happened.

They spent a good hour watching the display, and when they trudged back indoors, they could still see coloured lines before their eyes, which within a few minutes had faded. Sawyer had definately got his money's worth with that box of fireworks. None of the neightbours even came close to matching theirs, and he had a sneaking suspicion that a few of them shouted out of their windows to keep the noise down, only it was too loud to hear.

Once indoors, the kids complained they were hungry. Sawyer, for once, actually attempted domestic ideals and tried to cook something, but soon he had Evelyn and Ashley in the kitchen with him correcting him on everything he did.

"Sawyer, you don't use that! Use a knife!"

"Carrots? What are you trying to do? Kill us?"

"Mom was saving that for dinner tomorrow!"

"Not that milk! Thats Amy's formula!"

"You put it in the microwave? That's going to melt all over it!"

"The heats too high, no wonder it's burnt!"

Half an hour later, Sawyer threw his hands in the air. "Ok, I give up!" He exclaimed. "Ladies, take it away." He walked out of the kitchen and checked on the others, who were all watching a games console being played by Aaron and Evan, and with the blue glare from the screen they all looked like transfixed zombies.

Ten minutes later, the girls came back from the kitchen with lots of bags of crisps, excessive amounts of chocolate biscuits, and cans of soda. Sawyer took one look at it and knew that the kids were going to be bouncing off the walls within minutes.

* * *

Having left parents night later than expected, the six stood in the car park awkwardly. They were all thinking the same thing, about Ethan - how to get rid of him in the most inconspicious way. When Charlie pointed out that they had missed the movie, they decided to simply head back home instead, to talk about what had happened once the kids had gone to sleep. In the car on the way back, Kate was silent until they were about halfway home, then she turned her head to Jack, who was driving.

"Why now, Jack?" She asked. "Why has he come back now?"

Jack took his eyes off the empty road for a second to look at her, and picked up her loose hand in one of his. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "But I do know that he isn't anywhere near our children." He added with such determination that usually only came out in Jack's professional side.

"But the twins are friends with his daughter." Kate reasoned. "How-"

"You know how, Kate." Jack told her, and she felt the inside of her hand being caressed lightly by his thumb.

She sighed. "We have to tell them that he's back." She said grimly. The twins, Aaron and Ashley were the only ones who knew the truth about what happened on the island, as the rest were too young to understand. They were the only ones who knew about Ethan, and about Danielle, and the Others, and the monster. None of their parents liked the fact that their children knew certain things, but it was something that they needed to understand, especially when there were pictures around from the reunions and newspaper articles stashed away at Jack's mother's house. It was because of Margo Shephard that they knew in the first place. They had left the twins and Jasmine with them while they went to Kate's scan when she was expecting Amy, and Margo had accidently mentioned about the island. Of course, the kids were all ears about that.

Kate turned her head from looking out the window and looked at Jack. "He's back for them isn't he?" She asked. "For the twins."

Jack turned to look at her as they stopped at traffic lights. "What?"

"Aaron was born on the island, but the Evie and Evan were conceived there." Kate reminded him. "What if that means something?"

"Don't worry, they'll be fine." He assured her.

"Jack, if he takes them..." She started, but Jack was quick on the mark.

"Kate, Ethan is not going to take our children away from us." He promised her.

* * *

Sure enough, the kids went wild, or at least, the younger ones did. Amy had fallen asleep on Sawyer's shoulder and the older boys were playing a game while the two older girls were reading magazines, clearly not effected by the sugar rush that had overtaken the others. Sawyer turned his back for less than a minute while he laid Amy in her playpen for a moment to sort the others out, and when he turned back around, even he was astounded.

"Boone, get your finger out of the socket! Jasmine, get off the table! Taylor, don't you dare put that in your mouth!" Sawyer shook his head, he was starting sound like Jack. But then again, he had to do something. He would have six people ready to kill him if they came back to find one child electrocuted, one with a broken neck, and one choking. He'd probably be in real big trouble.

He dragged Boone along the carpet about two feet to get him away from the carpet, but he went straight back over as soon as Sawyer moved to lift Jasmine down from the table. Taylor had dropped whatever it was he was trying to eat that clearly wasn't edible, and was playing with one of Kate's picture frames instead. After a lot of chasing round, Sawyer finally got the three sitting together on the couch, and he looked at them long and hard.

"Right, now you're going to sit still, Ok?"

They nodded, and watched the television again, soon interested in cheering their brothers on and Boone cheering alongside Jasmine on Evan, who was beating Aaron by six races now. Sawyer went back over to the playpen and lifted the now grimbling Amy from the playpen and settled on the vacant chair across from where the kids were sitting.

"Alright, kiddo, don't you start screaming on me." He said to the baby, and warming to his voice, Amy settled down and went back to sleep.

Sawyer had only been sitting down comfortably for ten minutes however, when he heard the key in the lock and Jack and Kate walked in, followed by Sayid, Charlie, Claire and Shannon. The little Mommy's boy Boone ran over and hugged his mother, while Jasmine bounded over to Jack and Kate. Taylor, bless him, was too transfixed by the television to even notice his parents were in the room.

"What's the matter with you, you look like someone got hit by a bus." Sawyer joked. "Was parents night really that bad?"

The older four kids looked at each other nervously. Shannon shook her head. "Parent's night was fine." She said, and the children started to breathe again, knowing that the worst was behind them.

"Ok, kids, time for bed." Kate said, and the older kids looked at her like she was insane.

"Mom, it's nine o'clock." Evan argued.

"Evan, please." Kate said in a tired tone, and Evan and Evelyn walked towards the stairs. Claire and Shannon made to follow, and the others looked at their mothers.

"Come on." Claire said to them, and the note was taken that the kids were sleeping over at that house tonight.

All of the kids went off to bed. Kate left Amy with Sawyer and went upstairs with the other mothers and children. "Mom, please, it's early." Aaron said.

They settled Jasmine, Boone and Taylor in Jasmine's room, and then set up beds on the floor in Evelyn and Evan's rooms for Aaron and Ashely. Outside in the hall between the rooms, the kids looked at their mothers unfairly. Again Aaron looked at Claire and Kate unfairly. "Mom...Aunt Kate..."

Kate and Claire looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Aaron, we brought you into this world, we can take you out of it." It was their usual gang up on him, and it always worked.

The others all looked at their Mothers with the puppy dog eyes that they had originally taught them to be used on their fathers only. With the boys, it wasn't that much of a backdrop, but the girls had mastered it to an art. Kate surrendered, too tired and stressed to argue with them.

"All right, you can watch a movie first, then straight to bed afterwards."

Before any of them could change their minds, the kids disappeared into the two bedrooms, and Kate mimed banging her head against the wall. The other two laughed and they went back downstairs.

When they got back downstairs, Kate took sleeping Amy from Sawyer, but rather than taking her upstairs to bed or putting her down to sleep in the playpen, she simply held her in her arms as the girl snuggled up to her mother. Kate placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, and went to sit down on the couch, with Jack sitting down on the arm of the chair beside her.

"You gonna tell me what's goin' on now?" Sawyer asked, looking restless.

"Ethan's back." Jack told him.

Sawyer laughed for a moment, and then the others looked at him strangely. "Oh..." He said, stopping his laughter. "You can't be serious! He's dead!"

"Apparently not." Sayid informed him.

Sawyer gestured to Charlie. "But Daddy-O here shot him! Four times in the chest if I remember rightly."

"It doesn't matter what happened on the island, Sawyer." Kate said, avoiding everyone's gaze as she focused all her attention on her baby. "What matters is that he stays the hell away from the kids."

"We'll explain it to them tomorrow." Jack planned. "We all need to sleep on it tonight."

"That will be a fun conversation." Claire announced in her thick Aussie accent. "Especially after yesterday."

"Claire.." Charlie began, but Kate asked anyway.

"What happened yesterday?"

"Thomas rang." She said. "He tracked us down and he wants to see Aaron."


	13. Twin Qualities

Kate lay Amy down in her crib beside the bed she shared with Jack. It had definately been a long day. It was past midnight now, the children had all stayed at their house, and Sayid was driving over in the morning to help Jack with the school run. The shock of Ethan coming back was like a stun-gun to the brain. It was something that none of them would have expected, and yet none of them could deny it. Somehow, Ethan Rom had returned from the grave...even though he had taken four bullets to the chest, and been buried all their time on the island.

Kate hovered over the crib for a moment, watching her youngest daughter sleep. She wished that she could be that young again, with no sense of fear, or pain. All Amy knew was family and happiness, and it scared Kate to think that any of her children were in danger. Her hair was getting longer now, curling out at the bottoms like Evelyn's had done at that age.

Jack came up behind Kate, wrapping his arms around her waist and she leaned against his chest, both sighing heavily. They stayed in silence for a moment, both watching their daughter's rythmic breathing matching their own. But soon the silence was too heavy.

"It's going to be Ok." Jack whispered to her.

"Is it?" She asked doubtfully. "Look at what he did before, Jack. He killed people, just to get to Claire and Aaron."

"We were unprepared." Jack reminded her. "He can't do that again."

"What if he hurts them, Jack?" She asked fearfully. "We still don't know what he did to Claire out there in the jungle. What if he does something to the kids?" She turned in Jack's arms to face him, one of his hands settling on the small of her back while the other cupped her cheek reassuringly.

"Kate, we're not on the island anymore." He said to her, hating the fear in her eyes that had been gone for so long. "We're not lost anymore. There's so much more that we can do to protect them here. If, _if _anything happens, then we call the police."

Kate nodded. "Not lost anymore." She repeated.

The embraced, and Jack led her over to the bed. "Come on, let's get some sleep." He urged.

Once they had got into bed, Kate lay her head on Jack's chest, lifting her head to kiss him goodnight before he turned the lamp beside them off. In the darkness of their bedroom, they held each other closely, listening to the sounds of the night, because neither of them could sleep. Jack waited for an hour before Kate's breathing slowed and she fell into a sleep, before finally letting his own eyes close, forcing himself to believe that nothing was going to happen to his children.

Two days later, Evelyn bounded downstairs last, as usual. The others were already seated at the table, except for Kate, who had just finished fixing Evelyn's breakfast. When she entered the kitchen in a rush, Jack raised his eyebrows and shared an amused glance with Kate.

"Morning, Sleepyhead." Jack teased.

"Why did you let me sleep in?" Evelyn asked frantically, running over to the calender and pointing to the date on it. November 7th. "It's picture day today!"

"Evie, I came into your room three times before you actually got up this morning." Jack reminded her.

"And I came in once." Kate added. "You didn't even wake up when Evan threw a pillow in your face."

Evie glared a little at her twin as she sat beside him, but Evan only grinned cheekily. "Be glad it wasn't a glass of water." He said to her daringly.

Her grudge against Evan was forgotten as she started on her breakfast, and Jack started to feed Amy. He looked up every few seconds, watching the twins. It scared him when this happened.

Everything they did was in unison. Even though they weren't paying the slightest bit of attention to what the other was doing, they were still eating and drinking at exactly the same time. He could have sworn that they were talking in some telepathic language sometimes as well. Like a time when they were much younger.

The twins were four years old, and Kate had just found out that she was pregnant again with Jasmine. Only both the twins were acting strangely at present. They were extremely quiet, and didn't play much. They just sat together on the couch, staring at the television even when it was off. Even their kindergarten teacher had noticed the difference in the usually bubbly twins. After the third day, Jack had taken the twins to his practice, and gotten a second opinion from the other three doctors who worked with him, but between them they couldn't find anything physically wrong with them.

It was six days into the strange behaviour that they started to get paler. This was when Jack had panicked. Kate hadn't liked it from the start, insisting that something was wrong with her babies even though that doctors were coming up with no results. Again, he checked them, but again, there was nothing. Then on the eighth day, Evelyn had come to Jack while he and Kate were discussing it.

_"Daddy," She had said in her tiny voice. "Evan, he don't feel well." She said._

_How Evan had told her this was beyond them, as for a few days he had done little else than nod of shake his head. "Did he tell you that, sweetie?" Jack had asked. _

_Evelyn shook her head. "He don't need to."_

_Both Jack and Kate were now crouched before Evelyn. "How do you feel, Evie?" Jack asked her softly._

_"Like Always_._" She complained._

Like always. That was enough for them. They had taken the twins to the hospital and had tests run. The next day when the results had come back, it was revealed that the twins had a form of meningitis. However, after a sleepless few months, both of the twins had recovered fully, which for the type of illness they had, was very rare, especially to recover with no side effects.

That was the first time Jack had seen evidence of their mental bond. They seemed to know things about each other without being told. If one of the hit their arm on the counter, both of them would feel the pain. They could make a decision together without speak aloud. It amazed him somewhat, but it was sometimes scary, especially when they would spontaeneously start laughing for no reason whatsoever.

The twins were talking about picture day, something that Evelyn, for once, was taking seriously.

"You aren't seriously wearing that, are you?" Evelyn teased.

Evan looked down at the navy hoody with a band logo on and the jeans he was wearing. Then he looked over at Jack, who shrugged, and then at Evelyn again. "What's wrong with it?" He asked her incredulously.

"It's scruffy."

"It's clean."

"It's smelly."

"I've only just put it on."

"It smells of your room."

"There's nothing wrong with my room."

"Guys, please. We can do this without arguing." Kate intervened, as the phone started ringing. She left the room to go and answer it.

"I want the picture to be natural." Evan pointed out. "I don't get dressed up for nothing or no one. Unlike you."

Evie frowned, and turned back to her breakfast. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said innocently.

"Oh come on!" Evan laughed. "You mean to say that you're not getting the tiniest bit dressed up for Ben today?"

"Who's Ben? Jack asked, suddenly interested.

"Evie's boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend." She defended.

"But you want him to be."

"Bite me." She warned her brother, before standing up and leaving the kitchen. "I've got to get ready."

"What's the matter with her this morning?" Jack asked aloud, noticing Evelyn's clearly foul mood.

"God knows." Evan shrugged. "But if I have to spend another lunchtime with that new girl then I'm not going to be happy." He said grumpily, leaning his cheek on his fist.

"New kid?" Jack remembered what the teacher had said the other night at parents night about Ethan's daughter becoming friends with them. He pretended to be none the wiser about it. "Just started in your class then?"

"Yeah, moved down with her dad or something. I don't know, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention." Evan admitted. "Aaron doesn't trust her." He added slowly, as though it was something he was considering deeply.

"He doesn't?" Jack asked.

Evan shook his head. "We were talking about her yesterday, and he said that there's something about her that's just not right. I think that he's right as well."

"What makes you think that?"

"He says its something about her name."

"What is her name?"

"Kerry. Kerry Rom."

Jack knew for sure that this must be Ethan's daughter. He was about to answer when Kate came back into the room. She ran her fingers through her hair and took Evelyn's abandoned plate from the table and put it into the dishwasher with the rest.

"Everything Ok, Kate?" Jack asked her, noticing the stressed expression on his wife's face.

"That was Claire. She's having some problems with Aaron." She admitted.

"Oh." Evan said. "Is it about his real Dad?"

Kate looked at Evan. "You'd better go get ready for school, sweetie, it's getting late." She said glancing at the clock.

Evan knew that this was not the time to be asking questions, so disappeared upstairs. When he crossed Jasmine on the stairs, who wanted Kate to braid her hair for her, he made her go back upstairs saying that he would do it for her. He didn't do that bad a job either.

"What sort of problems?" Jack asked, as Kate sat next to him on the table.

"She told him that Thomas was back, and wanted to see him. She said that he was old enough to make that decision for himself."

"Well, he is thirteen." Jack agreed.

"Exactly." Kate said with a nod. "So she asked him whether he'd like to see him or not, and he started to kick off because of it."

"What was he saying?" Jack asked her.

"God knows, but it upset Claire." Kate sighed, then smiled. "I just feel sorry for Charlie." She muttered. "This must be killing him."

"He's been Aaron's father since he was born, now the real father turns up, he's going to take it hard."

"I guess so. Claire's got the morning off work. I'm going over with Amy for a few hours."

Jack nodded. "Ok. I might be a bit later home tonight than usual, busy day. If I am, I'll give Sayid or Sawyer a ring and get them to pick the kids up. I don't want them walking back on their own. Especially now it's getting darker earlier." He didn't need to voice the fact that he was worried about Ethan, because they both knew.

Kate nodded. "Ok. We'll have take-out tonight." She said. "I really fancy an Indian."

"I second that!" Jack agreed.

"Mom look."

Jasmine came into the kitchen, her hair now braided. Kate smiled. "Jazz, honey, did you do your own hair?" She asked with a proud laugh.

Jasmine shook her head. "No. Evan done it for me." She giggled.

Jack and Kate laughed as well, and then Evan came up behind his little sister. "Remember what I told you, Jazzy?" He asked her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"This never happened." She laughed harder.

"That's right. It didn't."

"Trying to hold onto your masculinity there, Evan?" Kate asked, while he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"I am masculine." He said defensively.

"You braided your sisters hair." Kate said. "Which is a very sweet thing to do."

"Can we use a word other than sweet, please?" Evan groaned.

"Ok, you braided Jasmine's hair, which is a very _manly _thing to do." Jack said with a grin.

Evan shook his head. "You're not gonna let me forget this are you?"

"No." Both parents and his sister answered together.

"Just try and cheer Aaron up a bit today, Ok?" Kate suggested.

"By any means necessary?" Evan asked sneakily.

"No explosives, no girls locker room, no makeshift weapons, and no leftover fireworks." Kate warned, remembering the incident yesterday.

"For the fiftieth time, I didn't know they were going to go off in my locker." He said, holding his hands up. "But, Ok. I'll cheer him up."


	14. The Trouble With Twins

At the school, things weren't going too well for the children. They had the morning out of lessons while they all queued to have their photographs taken, and whereas the year before, Ashley, Aaron, and the twins had stood waited together, there was a considerable absense where Evelyn was nowhere to be found. Evan approached the remaining two and slumped down next to them with a heavy sighed huff.

"What's eating you?" Aaron asked, noticing the rather annoyed look on his friends face.

"A horrible carnivore by the name of Kerry Rom." Evan complained. "I hate her."

The others looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Evie now would it?" Aaron teased.

"You tell me." He replied, jabbing his thumb in Kerry's direction.

Sure enough, over the other side of the assembly hall was Evelyn, sitting with Kerry, laughing and joking like they had been friends for years. Suddenly, Ashley's expression seemed to match Evan's. He had always been inseperable from his twin sister, and for the first time in their lives, they weren't getting on. And he had a feeling it was to do with the appearance of Kerry.

"Well, don't they look friendly." Aaron laughed.

"Don't they just." Evan complained.

"As soon as Evie realises, she'll come back to us." Aaron predicted.

Evan frowned. "Realises what, exactly? That Kerry's a stupid bimbo that's going to ditch her as soon as the popular girls move in?"

"Somehow," Ashley pointed over in their direction again, just in time to see the popular girls in question walk past and laugh at the other two. Of course, Evelyn shot daggers at them, as she always did, but Kerry laughed it off. "I don't think that will be happening."

"I mean about her in general." Aaron told them. "Trust me, there's more to her than she's letting on."

"You think she's hiding something?" Evan suggested. Aaron nodded in reply.

"Give her a break, guys, she's only been here three days." Ashley defended. "She doesn't have to tell you her life story."

"What are you defending her for?" Aaron said rather loudly. "She's taking Evie away from all of us. That means you too."

"I don't know what you're fussing over." Ashley defended, sounding a lot like her father. "Evie hasn't gone anywhere. Me and her are still best friends no matter who joins the school."

"That so?" Aaron questioned, giving Evan a look that suggested that he thought differently.

"Sure is." Ashley said, leaning back against the wall they were sitting by.

Evan was the one to voice what all three of them had been thinking. "Then how come you're over here, and she's over there...?"

Now Ashley was the one shooting daggers at Kerry.

* * *

"Claire, I'm sure that he didn't mean what he said."

"It sure sounded like it."

Kate had been sitting with Claire for about half an hour now, trying to comfort her about what Aaron had said to her that morning. She had Amy sleeping across her lap, and was subconsiously twirling the ends of her qucikly growing hair whilst she listened to Claire's fears that she was going to lose Aaron's love over this business with Thomas.

"He's not angry at you, honey, he's angry at Thomas." Kate reassured, but Claire was still pacing around the room. Kate noticed this. "Sit down, Claire, you're going to wear the carpet out."

Claire gave in and sat down, but went to biting her nail instead. "He keeps calling here...and I don't know what to tell him." She said helplessly. "He asks me what Aaron says when I talk about him."

"What does he say?" Kate asked.

Claire nodded in the direction of Kate's lap, where Amy was sleeping. "Nothing suitable for mention infront of a one-year-old."

Both women sighed. "Claire, maybe it's a good idea to let Aaron see him." Kate suggested cautiously

Claire looked around sharply to Kate, forgetting that she was currently tearing the nail from her thumb. "What?"

"It's the only way for Aaron to vent all this anger without hurting anyone who doesn't deserve it." She explained.

Claire shook her head. "Thomas doesn't deserve to see Aaron. He's not his son anymore. He gave that right up when he signed the papers allowing Charlie to adopt him."

"But Aaron deserves to see him." Kate reasoned. "Remember, he's only thirteen, and he still knows that his father abandoned him because he was selfish."

Claire was silent for a moment. "He shows up here wanting to meet his son. Why now? Why not on his birthday? Or when we came back from the island? He would have known exactly where we were with the news coverage. He would have known that I'd kept the baby. Why show up now?" She let out a shaky breath she had been holding and looked over to the mantlepeice where there was a photo with her and Charlie holding Aaron between them when they had been rescued. "I just don't want Aaron to get hurt if Thomas lets him down again."

"Then let Aaron decide for himself." Kate suggested. "You don't ever have to have anything to do with him ever again Claire. This is a chance for you and Aaron to get the answers that you've needed for the past thirteen years."

Again Claire went silent for a few moments, then she turned to Kate. "Will you be here, if he comes around, can you be here for me if Charlie can't?"

Kate didn't think twice before nodding. "Of course I will." She said, and leaned over to hug Claire without moving Amy too much in her sleep. "What does Charlie say about this?"

"Again, words that can't be mentioned around a one-year-old." Claire said, only this time with a choked laugh

* * *

Lunchtime came, and once again Evan, Aaron and Ashley found themselves one person down on their usual group. Evelyn hadn't been seen except in lessons when she had gone to sit with Kerry instead of them. Evan found himself more depressed than usual. He never thought that it was possible to miss someone when you still went to the same school, had the same classes, and lived under the same roof as them. Aaron nudged his friend in the shoulder.

"Snap out of it man, you look as bad as I feel." He sighed.

Evan remembered what Kate had told him that morning about trying to cheer Aaron up. "That weird guy still calling?" He asked. Ashley raised an eyebrow when Aaron nodded.

"What 'weird guy'?" She asked.

"Some guy called Thomas." Aaron said lightly, while diving into his bag to retrieve the other half of his sandwich. "Apparently he's my real father." You could tell from the way he worded it that he clearly didn't care. "Which is a load of damned crap because Charlie's my Dad - always has been, always will be."

"So you're not going to see him?" Evan asked.

Aaron shook his head. "Don't see why I should."

"You're kidding right?" Evan said incredulously. "This is your chance, man."

"My chance for what? To see the man who abandoned me and Mom?"

"No! To get some bloody answers." Evan explained. "If it were me I'd want to know exactly what possessed him to do it."

Aaron didn't get a chance to reply because Evelyn made a sudden appearance and sat down beside Ashley, opposite the boys.

"Well, well, well, look what the boar dragged in." Aaron said as she appeared. "What brings you back to the bull-pen?"

"Come on guys, we always eat lunch together." Evelyn laughed.

"Oh yeah, and where's you're lunch?" Evan asked. Evelyn didn't answer. "That's right, you've already eaten it haven't you?"

"I ate with Kerry. She didn't want to eat on her own." Evelyn shrugged.

"Where is she?" Evan asked. "Aren't you two joined at the hip or something?"

Evelyn shot him a look. "She's in the library doing some research."

"Maybe you should be with her." Evan shot back. "While you're there, look up something for me. It's a book called 'What To Do When Your Sister Ditches You'." Ashley raised her eyebrows at Aaron, who was looking at Aaron like he had been possessed by an evil spirit. For the first time in twelve years, Evan and Evelyn were argueing. They were surprised that they even knew how not to get along with each other.

Evelyn frowned at her brother. "What are you talking about, I haven't ditched you." She defended.

"Where were you this morning? At break? In history and science? For the first half of lunch?" He didn't give her a change to answer. "That's right, you were with Kerry."

"Well someone had to be!" She snapped back. "Maybe if you two," She looked at Evan and then Aaron, "were more accepting of her, she wouldn't be on her own."

Evan snorted. "She's not on her own, Evie, she's with you - constantly."

"If you stopped accusing her of everything that pops into your head then maybe we can all get along with her." Evelyn suggested.

"Aaron said she's not to be trusted." Evan reminded her.

"And if Aaron told you to jump off a cliff would you do it?" Evelyn remarked, sounding just like Kate. In fact, repeating a phrase that Kate said nearly every day to Evan. Of course, the truth was, if Aaron was also jumping off the cliff, it would most definately garauantee that Evan would jump.

"Don't turn this around on me." Evan told her.

"Evan, what is the matter with you?" Evelyn repeated.

"What's the matter with me? You are." He told her.

Aaron and Ashley both looked like they were too scared to move for fear of death.

"What?" Evelyn asked, the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"You're my sister, Evie. My _twin _sister. And in the past few days we've spent a total of two hours together." He told her. "Ever since Kerry came along you're completely ignoring me."

"Ignoring you? I'm trying to make her feel welcome. Not that you'd known what that means." Evelyn snapped.

"I don't know you anymore." Evan said sadly. "This time last week you were normal."

"I am normal." She defended.

"We were best friends, Evie. We told each other everything. No secrets, no lies - that's the motto remember. The motto that you came up with. We're meant to be a team." He pointed out, and she looked away with anger written all over her face. "Now I'm a teammate short, because she'd rather wear make up and tiny t-shirts with her new best friend." Evan indicated the short top she was wearing that day. "You're lucky that you were wearing a jumper this morning for the photo, because Dad would kill you if he saw you wearing that."

"Kerry lent it to me." She said in a matter-of-factly manner.

"If Kerry offered you arsenic would you take it?" Evan asked, bringing back her point from before.

Evelyn stood up, the tears that were welling finally spilling out. "Then tell me, _brother, _why can't you just accept the fact that I have a friend that doesn't revolve around you?" She didn't give him a chance to answer, and instead stalked off, wiping her face on her bare arm furiously as she left. To none of their surprise, she went in the direction of the library.

Evan huffed, and turned back to the other two, who were staring at him wide-eyed. "What?" He asked them.

"Evan...man. That was...woah." Aaron said, unable to get the words out.

"You're gonna get it in the neck later on." Ashley warned him.

"I don't know what the big deal is." Evan shrugged. "Someone needed to say it."

"But Evan, you just argued with Evie." Aaron told him.

"So."

"But, you've never argued." Aaron reminded him. "You're the Sheppard Twins. You don't argue."

Evan nodded in the direction of the door. "Apparently we don't have the same taste in people either." He shrugged. "She's made her choices."

Evan went back to his lunch, feeling that the weight that had been lifted off his shoulders was now being replaced with guilt. He had made Evelyn cry. Evelyn never cried. She hadn't cried since she was six and Aaron had put a toy spider in her hair that had turned out to be a real spider. She just didn't cry. Their father always said that he was like their mother with that. She never cried either. She had cried when she was happy that Amy was born, or when something drastically bad happened, but that was it. And now Evan had made Evelyn cry.

Ashley was right. He was going to get it in the neck later.


	15. Worse Than We Thought

**This hasn't been updated for a while so I'm going to focus on getting a few more chapters of this up over the weekend. The first part might seem a bit irrelevant, but trust me - it's going to come back. **

At the end of the day, the rest of the children went home, where as Aaron and Evan stayed behind for an extra-curricular science class. Aaron went because he needed the help in science, but Evan went because he simply enjoyed the subject more than anything else. In return for this, Aaron often dragged Evan to every concert he went to as payback. There was usually three on them in this lesson after school hours, but today, Hannah Bryan wasn't in school due to the flu, so it was just the two of them with Mr Baker, which neither of them minded, because Mr Baker was probably the coolest teacher in school.

While they waited for him to show up, Aaron eased back in the chair. "Sooo...how much trouble do you think you'll be in when you get home?" He said, passing time, but also curious.

"Don't even start." Evan said to him. "It's gonna be that much worse 'cause Mom and Dad will hear it from Evie first anyway." He realised.

"My bets on two weeks grounded." Aaron nodded.

Evan turned to look at him, and shook his head. "Thanks for that."

"No problem." Aaron grinned. "Besides, we're both in the same boat, remember? I've gotta go home and assure my Mom that I don't hate her. Then again, that might take a while because she would have gone out by the time I've got in." He shrugged. "So I've gotta babysit Taylor tonight."

"What about Charlie?" Evan asked.

"Dad's picking Mom up from the mall and they're going straight out to dinner as soon as I get in." He told him.

"Unlucky." Evan laughed.

"Will you be online tonight?" Aaron asked. The pair frequently talked over instant messenger on the computer in the evenings.

"If I haven't been grounded." Evan muttered, and then Mr Baker walked in. "Hey, sir." They both greeted.

"Afternoon, boys. No Hannah today?"

"No, she's got the flu." Aaron said. "Wasn't in music earlier either."

"Shame, we've got a good session lined up today. A company in the Pacific have recently been experimenting with nanotechnology in medical science."

This meant little to Aaron, but Evan's face lit up. "Nanotech?" He muttered excitedly.

"Yes, you can now see inside the human body with the most amazing accuracy."

Evan looked at the screen in awe.

"The procedure is one hundred percent safe, and it can work for any area of the body. This is because the camera they put inside the blood streams is smaller than a red blood cell, quite a bit smaller, actually. Dharma Technology can now produce these miniaturized cameras cheaply and quickly, in large quatities. Even though it would take over a thousand of them just to make a dot the size of a pen point, it is said that a kilogram of them can be created in under an hour."

"That quickly?" Evan asked, rather skeptical. "I thought that they could design devices of that scale but not actually make them?"

Baker sat down on the edge of his desk, and shook his head. "Dharma seems to have solved that problem."

"What?" Evan asked.

Baker handed out a picture composed worksheet to each of the boys. It was the blown up size of the cameras compared to a red blood cell. It was almost a tenth of the size.

Aaron was the one that questioned the labeled image of the camera. "But...where's the lens?"

"There is no lens." Baker revealed.

"Surely every camera has to have a lens?"

"Unless it's a camera obscura." Evan suggested wearily.

Baker nodded. "Right, Evan."

"What's a camera-" Aaron began to ask, but Baker cut him off with the answer straight away.

"It's the oldest imaging device known to man." He answered. "The Romans had found that if you made a small hole in the wall of a dark room, an upside-down image of the exterior appeared on the opposite wall. Can you tell me why, Evan?"

"Because the light coming through a hole that small would already be focused like it would be through a lens."

"Exactly."

"So...kind of like a pinhole camera?" Aaron asked.

Baker nodded, and continued. "The cameras use an controlled partical network to communicate with each other, so that there can be many cameras operating at the same time."

"What sort of program?" Evan asked.

""Usually they are based on the behaviour of animals that always stay in packs, or swarms. Because they are composed of many individual units, the group swarm of cameras could respond to the environment in a robust way, and when faced with new situations, it wouldn't crash, but would flow around the obstacle and keep moving."

"So a single camera on its own wouldn't work?" Aaron checked.

"No, the image would have to be made of millions of cameras working at the same time." Baker said. "But it would have to be organised in a certain structure."

"Like an eye."

"But..." Evan argued. "Surely that can't happen..."

"How do you mean?" Baker asked him.

"We said last week that molecular manufacturing wasn't any different from any other kind of manufacturing." Evan recapped. "Which means it would take a while to get it right. So, assembling that many atoms would be like doing a computer code, and that _never _works even the hundredth time. It has to keep being debugged."

"I don't think I understand you're meaning?" Baker said with a frown.

"Think about it. The codes that program the camera would keep having to be debugged before they worked right. So if this company have groups of cameras working together, they'd also have to debug the way it communicates, because once they communicate, there's a primitive network."

Aaron listened and picked up certain facts as Evan continued to argue that this form of nanotechnology simply couldn't work, as much as this Dharma company thought it might. Evan seemed determindely set on the theory that there was no possible way to fully control the swarm, and that it would continue feeding off its primitive habits. The strange thing was, something else was registering in Aaron's mind. Things were becoming more and more familiar to him. First, Kerry's father's name, and now, he was sure he had heard of the Dharma company before.

* * *

Just over an hour later, Evan arrived home after Charlie had dropped him off on his way home. He was greeted at the door by Kate, who looked like she was in the middle of feeding Amy from the baby spoon in her hand.

"Hi, sweetie, how was school?" She asked with a smile as he took off his coat, hanging it beside the door on the hooks with the rest of them.

"I'm guessing she already told you then." He assumed.

"Come on, let's sit down and talk about this." Kate said, leading him into the kitchen where she continued feeding Amy, and he sat down opposite Jack.

"Hi Dad." He said, but Jack just raised an eyebrow.

"Want to tell us what happened earlier?" He asked seriously.

Evan sighed, leaning his elbow on the table. "She ignored us all day, didn't say a word to us, and spent all day with _her_." He explained.

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Kerry, her new best friend." Evan said bitterly. "Then at lunch, when Kerry went off somewhere else, Evie came back to us and pretended nothing had happened."

"And..." Jack prompted.

Evan groaned. "...And I lost my temper a bit."

"A bit?" Jack questioned. "Evelyn hasn't come out of her room since she got home from school."

"She has only been home for an hour." Evan shrugged.

"Evan." Jack warned, and Evan averted his eyes. He hated when he got on the wrong side of his father. Kate was easy, she'd give him the talking to, and then things would be alright, but it was always the grueling dissapointed talk with Jack that he hated. He looked at Kate instead, who gave him a similar look.

"Don't look at me to get you out of this, Evan." She said.

"Seriously, you're lucky she had her jumper on for the photo this morning." Evan said.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"So you haven't seen the lovely new top that Kerry lent her?" Evan asked. "Then again, you might have missed it, it is really small."

"Evan, don't talk about your sister that way!" Kate scolded.

"She's not just my sister, Mom, she's my twin! And in the past few days we've spent a total of two hours together." He looked down at the table, picking a loose thread on his jumper cuff. "Ever since Creepy Kerry came along, I've been out of the picture."

Kate let out a sigh, turning towards Evan. "Evan, we talked about this, as you get older, you're going to get new friends that you don't always agree with." She reminded.

"I know, I don't mind, I just don't like Kerry." He said with a shrug.

"Why not?" Jack asked, even though he knew that this was Ethan's daughter. "What has she done to you?"

"She's turning my sister into some kind of freak." He shrugged. Kate and Jack eyed him curiously, and then looked at each other. "Trust me, she's changed because of her. Just talk to her, and you'll see." He said.

There was a silence, and Jack and Kate looked at each other again.

"Can I go now, I promised Jazz this morning that I'd help her with her spellings." He said, and Kate nodded, letting him leave the kitchen.

Kate sighed heavily. "Well, what do we do now?"

Jack went over to the phone on the wall and dialed Sayid's number.

"Sayid...yeah, it's me. Listen, what are you doing tonight? Great, bring Shannon and the kids over, we're telling them tonight...about everything. Things are getting worse than we thought."


	16. Daddy Issues

EVAN has logged in  
AARON has logged in

Aaron: Hey, man, not grounded I see?  
Evan: Nah, things probably aren't gonna be good though  
Aaron: I know, apparently we're coming over to yours tonight.  
Evan: Thought your mum and dad were out for dinner?  
Aaron: They are, we're coming over when they get back.  
Evan: Cool. You reckon we're in trouble?  
Aaron: We usually are when we're all getting together like this.  
Evan: Can't think what we've done though  
Aaron: Hmm...let's see...could it be something to do with your outburst at Evie earlier?  
Evan: Nah, had that talk with mum and dad earlier. They're trying to coax her out of her room at the moment to talk. No...wait...they've given up...they think she's asleep.  
Aaron: She's faking.  
Evan: I know, but they're not gonna wake her up if they think she's asleep.  
Aaron: I guess.

EVIE has logged on

Aaron: I knew she wasn't asleep!

ASHLEY has logged on

Evie: Hey  
Ashley: Hey  
Evie: Listen, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to yell at him in front of you like that.  
Ashley: No problem, I can see where he was coming from though.  
Evie: What?  
Ashley: We miss you, Evie. We hardly see you now.  
Evie: Well, if you'd just learn to accept Kerry then it wasn't going to happen in the first place.  
Ashley: Look, let's not argue now. We're all in trouble tonight anyway.  
Evie?  
Ashley: Your dad just called my dad. Turns out we're all round yours tonight for a "talk"  
Evie: Great.  
Ashley: We haven't had a big talk like this since the time we all took a ride on Mr Elliot's lawnmower hehe  
Evie: I still say that looked too much like a car to be a lawnmower.  
Ashley: Thank god it wasn't as expensive as one, otherwise we'd still be getting no allowance for it.  
Evie: Yeah...how long did your parents keep that up?  
Ashley: Three weeks, yours?  
Evie: Four.  
Ashley: Lucky us.  
Evie: So...friends?  
Ashley: Friends.  
Evie: Good.  
Ashley: Have you spoken to Evan yet?

EVIE has logged off.

* * *

Whilst they waited for the others to arrive, Jack was carrying Amy through to the kitchen, where Kate had prepared a bottle for her before she went to bed. As he did, he arm brushed against the wall, rattling a photo on there. He turned to look at it. It was the picture of Kate and the twins when they were three, all wearing snowsuits when they had been on holiday in Lapland one christmas.

Next to it was the one of Jack and Kate on their tenth wedding anniversary in Hawaii, kissing infront of a sunset. It had been a good holiday for them, with the children staying with Charlie and Claire. In fact, they were sure that Amy had been conceived there. When Kate had told Jack, the soda he had been drinking at the time had shot up his nose and they both started to laugh.

Then there was a picture of Kate and the older two girls making cakes in the kitchen. Evie was standing on a stool, but Jasmine was so small that she was sitting up on the kitchen counter, her legs barely reaching the edge. She couldn't have been more that two years old. Evie was sneaking her finger into the bowl of icing that Kate was mixing, and all of them had flour stains over their freckled cheeks.

Another photo showed them walking along throught the park. Jasmine was on Jack's shoulders, and each of them were holding a twins hand.

He sighed. All of these pictures showed his twins loving each other. When had that stopped?

As he stepped into the kitchen, he saw Kate rubbing circles in her temples. Immediately, he frowned, and placed Amy down in her high chair as he went over to Kate. Standing infront of her, he put his hands on her upper arms.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked quietly.

Kate sighed heavily. "Everything's going wrong." She said simply. "We always said that the twins would drift apart completely when the world came to an end."

Jack gave her a soft smile, remembering that conversation from only last year, when the twins were inseperable. In fact, last week the twins had been inseperable. He kissed her forehead, and she brough her hands down. "Don't worry." He told her. "Things are going to work out again. They just need to apologize to each other."

Kate nodded. "You're right." She realised, and they shared a kiss until Amy began complaining from her high chair. Kate had to laugh. "What's the matter, honey?" She asked. "Don't like sharing Mommy and Daddy, do you?" Amy giggled, having acheieved her goal of some fuss, and let Kate feed her easily. "Now, I need you to go to sleep easily tonight, cause Mommy and Daddy are busy, Ok?" Amy just stared at her with curious eyes. "I'll take that as a yes." Kate assumed, with a smile.

Jack watched with a smile as Amy reached up a hand and balled it into Kate's hair, twirling the curls in her fingers as she always did. He stroked the soft hair on her head, and she removed her hand from Kate's hair, grabbing his finger instead. "At least you're not arguing with anyone, Angel." Jack said sweetly to her.

"What a Daddy's girl." Kate teased.

"One more to add to the list." Jack said. All of his girls were daddy's girl.

"Not for long." Kate shook her head. "This one's gonna be a Momma's girl."

"You're so sure about that, aren't you." Jack cocked his head to one side. "What do you think, Amy?" Jack asked in a cooing voice. "Momma's girl or Daddy's girl?"

Amy looked between the two of them, and then pointed in another direction. They turned to see what she was looking at, and found that one of her teddy bears was on the kitchen floor. Jack went and retrived it, hanging it to Amy who cuddled it tiredly.

"Awww, someone's tired." Kate said softly as Amy curled up against her, resting her head comfortably on her shoulder.

"Oh, Amy, don't ever grow up." Jack said, leaning to kiss her forehead with a smile. "Oh, I almost forgot." Jack realised. "We have a dinner to go to on Saturday." He told her.

Kate raised an eyebrow at him. "What's this in aid of? Not 'Jack's want to score' again, is it?"

"Of course not. I don't need to take you out to dinner to score." He reminded her.

"But it will help your cause." She reminded him.

"Trust me, I know. It just makes it all the more fun, but one of the funders for the surgery is presenting awards for outstanding medical achievement, and we have a presentation dinner to go to." He told her proudly.

Her jaw dropped. "Oh my god!" She said with a grin. "Jack! That's fantastic!" She said, hugging him.

"We get wined and dined for free, so we're taking advantage of it. I mentioned problems getting a babysitter, but they said that children will be allowed."

"Maybe it's a good idea to leave Amy with someone though." Kate said, but then her mood changed again. "An award! Oh my god that's ... wow!"

"And you are going to need a nice formal dress." Jack told her, watching her smile.

"Wait a second, does this mean that you're getting our son to wear a suit?" Kate asked, knowing how much any of the children hated to wear fancy clothes.

"I don't mind that challenge, because you're going to be the ones getting our daughters into dresses." He reminded her. "Good luck with that."

* * *

Aaron was sitting with Taylor up at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. He had managed to make them some fish-finger sandwiches and chips for dinner. Charlie had told him to do some before he went out, telling them that they were going to Jack and Kate's when they got home.

"Aaron?" Taylor asked. "Why are you mad at Mom?" He had finished with his dinner, if they could call it that, and was just waiting for Aaron now.

"I'm not mad at Mom." Aaron said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"But you were cross with her this morning." Taylor pointed out.

"I wasn't cross with Mom, I was mad at someone else." He explained.

"Who?"

"Someone." Aaron said. "Does it matter?"

"Was it Dad?"

In a strange way, Aaron felt compelled to say 'yes'. But he wasn't mad at Dad. He was mad at Thomas, and he wasn't his dad. Charlie was his dad.

"No, it wasn't Dad."

"Then who was it?" Taylor asked him.

"It doesn't matter." Aaron said. "I'm not mad anymore." He tried to sound convincing. The phone rang off in the hall, and Aaron went to answer it. "Don't eat my sandwich!" He called back to Taylor as he left him at the breakfast bar. "Hello?" He said picking up the phone.

"Is Claire Littleton around?" A voice asked.

Aaron looked slightly confused. "Littleton is her maiden name. Her surname is Pace now." He told the caller. "And no, she's not here. Who's calling?"

"I know she doesn't want to talk to me, but I need to speak to her. Do you know her, are you her friend?" The voice said, almost desperately.

"I'm her son." Aaron said. "Aaron."

"Aaron? How old are you, Aaron?" The caller asked, sounding like he was trying to test the name.

"Thirteen." The phone went silent. "Who is this?" He asked. "If you're selling something, we're not interested..."

"I'm not selling anything. When Claire comes back, just tell her that Thomas called for her." The voice said.

"Thomas? You're him, aren't you!" Aaron said down the phone, and the person hung up without saying another word. Aaron crushed the phone back to the handset. Thomas. That was him. He had just called here, and he had answered. He had just had the first conversation with his real father that he had ever had.


	17. Introduction To Fatherhood

A knock at the door startled Jack and Kate from where they were sitting in the lounge. The kids were eating in the kitchen, or rather, Evan and Jasmine were, and Evelyn was up in her room, insisting that she wasn't hungry...at least thats what they could make out through what she called through her closed bedroom door.

Kate sat up from where she had been leaning against Jack. "The others are a bit early, aren't they?" She mused, seeing as it was at least an hour before they had arranged to meet.

"Expecting anyone else?" He asked as he walked over to the door.

Kate shook her head, following him over to the door. Jack opened it, revealing the blonde-haired southerner who they hadn't seen or heard from in days, which was strange. Only hours earlier, Kate was wondering whether he had disappeared off the face of the Earth.

"Sawyer?" She said strangely.

Sawyer looked up as she said his name, and smiled an uneasy smile. "Perfect, you're in. I...uh...Can I come in?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

Sitting at the kitchen table now that the kids had finished eating, Jack handed Sawyer some much needed coffee. He fiddled with hands, nervously fidgeting all the time.

"Sawyer, what's wrong?" Jack asked, noticing his usual slacked demenour was completely gone.

"We haven't seen you like this since Cassidy left." Kate remembered.

"She came back." Sawyer nodded quietly.

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Cass. She came back." He repeated.

Kate grinned at him. "Sawyer, that's great!" Sawyer had never really gotten over Cassidy leaving.

Sawyer rubbed the back of his neck again. "She wasn't alone." He said awkwardly.

Kate frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Someone came back with her." He explained. "Well, they kinda did, but not completely. I suppose they did, but it's complicated, and I dunno what to do-"

"Sawyer, you're rambling." Kate told him.

"Sorry." He muttered, calming down from his nervous outburst.

"Right, who came back with her?" Kate asked him sensibly, keeping her voice calm hoping that he would catch on and relax.

Sawyer said nothing, but instead reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a polaroid photograph, and slid it across the table to Kate and Jack. Kate picked it up, and looked at her.

"Sawyer, this is a baby scan." Jack said, even though Sawyer clearly knew that.

He leaned across the table, and pointed out at the paler shape. "See that shape here?" He asked them, and they both nodded. "That's my son. My little boy."

"Cassidy's pregnant?" Kate questioned, even though it was a stupid question because she was holding the proof in her hands.

"She left when she found out that she was pregnant because she thought that I wasn't ready for settling down. She came back yesterday, because she decided that she couldn't do it without me. Said she needed me. First time in my life that's happened." He explained.

"But Cassidy left seven months ago." Jack pointed out. "She'd be nearly due by now, depending on how far along she was when she left."

Sawyer nodded, confirming what Jack predicted. "Kid's due any day now."

Kate gave him a gentle smile. "You know what this means, right?" She said softly.

Sawyer took the photo back when she handed it to him, and he looked at it for a moment, a soft smile on his face. "Yeah...I'm gonna be a Dad." He said, and a look of undescribable happiness spread across his face.

Jack clapped him on the shoulder for congratulations. "Welcome to my world."

* * *

An hour or so later, Shannon closed the door behind her, the last person to walk through it. "Okay, all here." She called as she hung her jacket up behind the door.

"Where's Jack?" Sayid asked Kate as he entered the living room. Ashley went over and sat with Aaron and Evan, who were playing a racing game on the PlayStation, whilst they had been waiting for Shannon and Sayid to turn up.

"He's trying to coax Evie out of her room." Kate said tiredly. He had been up there for ten minutes already, and the girl looked set not to budge.

"Why?" Sayid asked.

"Long story." Charlie told him as Sayid sat on the couch beside him.

"You never know, you might get a rerun later." Aaron said from his seat on the floor.

"Are you boys going to turn that game off now, please?" Kate asked them.

"When Evie comes down." Evan said, without taking his eyes off of the screen.

"Looks like we can do best of 100 then." Aaron joked.

"Game on!"

* * *

"No!"

"Evie, come on..."

"I'm doing homework!" She explained.

"That can wait." Jack said stubbornly.

"No it can't. It's due tomorrow." She told him.

"Then you should have done it earlier and not left it until the last minute." He reminded her.

"When else am I going to do it?" She asked him. She still hadn't opened the door, so he was standing out in the hall talking to her through the wooden barrier.

"You can do it later, we just need half an hour to talk to you." He reasoned.

There was a small silence, and then: "Am I grounded?"

"You won't be if you come downstairs." He told her simply.

"Dad, this is important!" She complained unfairly.

"No, Evie, what we've got to say is important." He countered.

"This is for my science grade!" She tried again.

"And this is with your best interests at heart." Jack said, again, having a comeback for her.

"You said that when we had the meningitis jabs last month." Evie reminded him.

Of course he had said that. "And it was true." For God's sake the twins had a close brush with meninigitis when they were younger. When they had come home from school with parental permission forms mentioning the words 'meningitis vacination' him and Kate had signed them without a second thought. "Please, Evie, come downstairs."

"No."

"Now, Evie." He said firmly.

"I'm busy."

"I'm not arguing with you about this." He told her.

"Looks like it." She answered back cheekily.

"Evelyn Shepherd!" He said angrily. He rarely used her full name, only when he was angry with her, and that, too, was rare. "This is your last chance."

He half expected her to ask what came after the last chance, but she didn't. "All right, calm down." She said, and followed her father downstairs.

* * *

"Good to see you've surfaced into the light of day, honey." Kate said simply as Evelyn appeared downstairs.

On this, Evelyn turned to go back upstairs, but Jack was standing right behind her, and lightly grabbed her shoulders, leading her into a chair. "Don't even think about it." He told her.

"Boys, game off now please." Kate said to Aaron and Evan.

"We'll just finish this race, Mom." Evan called over his shoulder.

"Okay. Jasmine, boys, lets get your film set up." They had agreed that Jasmine, Boone and Taylor were a bit too young to understand what they were about to tell the others, so were setting a movie up for the younger ones to watch up in the den.

Claire stood up infront of Kate. "No, I'll do that, Kate, you sit down." She insisted.

"No, it's okay." Kate smiled.

"Kate, you've been running around like a woman on steroids for the past half an hour." Claire pointed out. "Relax for a minute."

Kate smiled, giving in to her because honestly, she did feel exhausted. As soon as she had sat down comfortably on the couch, she heard Amy's cries floating through the baby moniter on the table beside her. She moved to stand up again, but Jack put his hand on her shoulder, making her sit back down gently.

"Stay there, honey, I'll go see to her." He smiled, and then disappeared up the stairs.

"Okay." She grinned back. "Jasmine?" She said, before her daughter disappeared off with Claire and the boys. "Give me a hug." Kate smiled, and Jasmine hopped over to her, embracing her mother tightly. She gave her a kiss before she bounded after the others into the den.

Jack came downstairs moments later with Amy in his arms. "She's okay, just wants some attention I think." He said, giving Kate a reassuring smile.

"Sawyer can do that." Kate decided, and he snapped his head up from where he had been daydreaming whilst looking at the scan photo. Cassidy was with her mother for the evening, so he had decided to stay to help out on the explaining.

"Me?"

"Go on, you wanted practice." Kate tempted.

"Yeah, but this is your kid." Sawyer said as he took Amy into his arms. "I'm going to be dealing with the spawn of Satan."

Kate shook her head whilst laughing. "Sawyer, you're going to love your baby, and your baby is going to love you." She told him firmly.

"But Amy's a girl." He pointed out. "Boys are different."

"Evan wasn't different." Kate reminded.

"Aaron loved you to bits, still does." Charlie piped up.

"Boone and Taylor light up when they know that you're coming over." Shannon added.

Sawyer shook his head. "Okay, you've made your point." He said to them.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Sawyer." Kate told him with a smile.

"Okay...let's get this party started." Sawyer decided.


	18. Secrets Revealed

"Okay...now, we really didn't want to have to talk this through with you guys, but we've got no choice." Kate started.

Aaron and Evan looked at each other with a frown, and then looked at their mothers. "This isn't about parents night, is it?" Aaron realised.

"No." Claire assured him.

"Phew!" He exhaled, leaning back in the couch.

"It's about your new friend." Jack told them, and Evelyn went to stand up at the mention of Kerry.

"Okay, I'm going to bed." She announced.

Jack fixed her with a glare and pointed her back into her seat. "You stay right there, young lady." He told her.

Evelyn didn't move to sit back down. "You can't tell me who I have to be friends with, Dad!" She told him.

"I know that, Evie, but this is a-"

"Serious matter, I know." She finished for him. "It always is with you at the moment." She complained.

Jack got a hurt look on his face. "Evie-"

"Evie, just hear your father out." Kate said, not wanting to have Jack put down by their eldest daughter.

"But-"

"Evelyn!" She scolded.

Evelyn threw herself back down into the chair, and Evan leaned over to Shannon. "Told you you'd get a rerun." He nodded.

"Evander." Kate warned.

"Sorry." He said quietly.

Sawyer looked around at them and then frowned from his seat with Amy. "I think I'm missing something here." He realised out loud.

Claire nodded at him. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out."

"As I was saying." Jack continued. "Aaron...Evan said that you don't trust Kelly."

"Kerry." Evelyn corrected defensively.

"Kerry." Jack said, if only to satisfy Evelyn.

"I know that I shouldn't judge people straight away, but there's something about that girl that quite frankly scares the hell out of me." Aaron announced.

"When did you figure it out?" Jack asked calmly.

"Something about her name." Aaron remembered. "She looks familiar as well."

"What about her name?"

"All of it." Aaron told them. "Kerry Rom."

Claire let out a sigh, rubbing her forehead with her hand, Kate bit her lip worriedly, and Shannon looked worried as well. Ashley looked at the reaction from the mothers, and frowned. "Do we, uh, know her from somewhere?" She asked carefully.

"No, but we know her father." Sayid confirmed.

"She's only just moved her with her Dad." Evelyn told them.

"Where from?" Jack asked her.

"I can't remember." She told him simply.

"You can't remember or you won't say, Evie?" He asked her.

Evelyn shrugged. "She's travelled all over the world, how am I supposed to remember one place?"

"All around the world? Why settle here?" He continued to ask.

"Her Dad's got friends here."

"Does she know his friends?"

"No, but apparently he's been trying to track them down for a long time. What does this have to do with anything?" She asked tiredly.

Charlie nodded at Jack. "Sounds like him, alright."

"Like who?" Aaron asked.

Jack sighed. "Remember we were in a plane crash?" He asked.

They nodded. "As we've been told a thousand times."

"Well, a lot of things happened on that island that we never told anyone." He told them. "The press didn't know, the airline didn't know, we just didn't talk about it when we came back becaue we knew that it would never get to us again." Jack explained.

"Wait, what does this have to do with Kerry?" Ashley asked.

"Maybe we should start from the beginning." Claire suggested, and the other adults nodded at Jack.

"Yeah, start from the beginning, that way I'll understand what you're talking about as well." Sawyer piped up.

"We'd been on the island for about three weeks when your Uncle Hurley decided that he wanted to do a census, so that we could know who was alive and who had been lost in the crash." Jack started. "He went through the plane's manifest, ticking off the names of people, but one of the names wasn't on the list. His name was Ethan. Ethan Rom."

"Coincidence." Evelyn said quickly.

"But if he wasn't on the manifest...that meant that he wasn't on the plane." Ashley pointed out.

"Then how'd he get there?" Evan sked.

"He was already on the island, wasn't he?" Aaron asked the adults with a frown.

"Yeah, he was." Jack nodded. "We went after him when he found out, but we didn't get there in time. Charlie and Claire went missing, and Claire was still pregnant with you, Aaron."

Aaron leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees. "What happened?"

"We looked through the jungle for hours, and we found Ethan. I fought him, and he said that if we followed him again he would kill one of them. We didn't listen, and we followed him. Next think we knew, me and Kae were staring at Charlie's body, which was hanging from a tree."

"WHAT?" All four kids cried out.

"What about Mom?" Aaron asked.

"We kept looking, but we couldn't find her." Jack revealed. "Then, two weeks later, she just walked out of the jungle."

"Did you escape?" Aaron asked his mother.

"Someone helped me escape before they took you away from me." She revealed.

"We had some guns, took them, and me, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer and Locke went after Ethan, by pretending to make a deal with Ethan. He said that he would kill one of us if we didn't take Claire back to him, and we thought that he was just bragging. The next morning, a man called Scott washed up on the beach."

"What happened to him?" Ashley asked hesistantly.

"Every bone in his body had been broken." Kate said quietly.

"All the defences we'd built had been for nothing, because they'd come from the sea." Jack added. "So we went after him. We found him, and Charlie shot him four times in the chest." Charlie looked down, finally being revealed to them as a murderer. "Charlie and Hurley were the ones who buried him, and we thought that was the end. Imagine how we feel when he turns up at your parents night."

Evie frowned. "So, you're saying that Kerry's Dad lived on the island before you got there, kidnapped Claire, hung Charlie, killed Scott, took four bullets to the chest, then got buried..."

"Yes." Jack nodded.

"And he was at parents night?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" She asked him. "'Cause that's pretty impossible."

"I know." Jack shrugged.

"But, Dad, it CAN'T happen." Evan protested. "It's scientifically impossible."

Jack again, had to shrug, but hated doing so this time to Evan, who had based most of his life around science just as he had done when he was younger. It was this experience, however, that showed him otherwise. "Clearly it can."

"But how?"

"I don't know." Jack admitted. "What we do know, is that he's definately back to cause some trouble."

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked warily.

"He's back for us." Aaron said simply.

"Don't be stupid, Aaron." Evie said tiredly.

Aaron turned in the chair to face her. "Think about it, Evie. What else could he be back for?"

"He's dead!" She told him firmly.

"He's your new best friends Dad!" He countered.

"Prove it!"

"It's simple, Evie." Evan stepped in. "How can he have died then, if he would have to wait another year to have produced a child the same age as us and Ashley?"

"It's not the same man!" Evie insisted.

"Of course it is!" Aaron said. "She even said that her Dad's name was Ethan!"

Evelyn went to answer him back, but Jack stepped in to stop their bickering. "Everyone calm down!" He said, and the kids stopped argueing. "Much better." He turned to look at Evie. "Evie, honey, I'm sorry to say this, but Kerry-"

"If you say that she can't be my friend then I'm leaving this room right now." She said quietly, but firmly.

"Evelyn-" Kate reasoned.

"No, Mom!" Evelyn interrupted. "She's alone, and she's new to this place, and everyone apart from me has rejected her."

"Evie, please listen to us." Kate pleaded.

"She needs me, Mom!"

"And I need you!" Kate snapped back. The room was silent for a moment before Kate continued speaking. "You're my eldest daughter, Evelyn. When we left that island I was carrying you and your brother, and I swore then and there that nothing would ever hurt my family." Jack, sitting closest to Kate, saw the tears welling up in her eyes. "I love you with all my heart, and I can't bear it that every day you're getting closer to the daughter of the man that wants to kill you. Because that's what he'll do. He'll kill you, just like that, and he'll make you suffer just so that he can hurt us." Two tears slipped down her cheeks as she threw her hands up in frustration. "And you know what? It's working! It's working, because whenever any of you walk out that door in the morning, I'm scared that I'll never see you again. I'm scared that I'm going to get a call from the school saying that you never showed up, even though your father drops you at the gate. I'm scared that I'm going to lose my family."

It was too much for Kate now, all the stress loaded onto her at once, and she broke down in tears. Jack was about to move to comfort her when Evelyn suddenly flung herself off the couch and into her mother's arms. This hid the fact that she was nearly crying herself. After a few minutes, they parted, and Evie looked between her parents.

"What do I do?" She asked quietly.

"You apologize to your brother and Aaron, and we work about solving this." Jack said softly.

Evelyn nodded, and turned to the boys seeing as she had already apologized to Ashely earlier that evening. "I'm sorry." She murmered quietly.

"Don't worry about it," Aaron waved off. "We're better mates than she is anyhow."

Evan said nothing, and then took a breath. "Welcome back, sis."


	19. Sleep Tight

"Woah, what a day." Jack announced when he and Kate got ready for bed a few hours later. The kids were all in bed, with Amy and Jasmine fast asleep hours ago, but the twins only going into their bedrooms half an hour ago after talking with them in the kitchen.

"Tell me about it." Kate agreed stepping up beside him and embracing him.

Jack put his arm around her, drawing her close. "At least it ended on a good note." He reasoned.

"You mean after we told the kids that Ethan's after them, or when they all made up?" She asked.

"I think it's safe to say the latter." Jack nodded.

Kate sighed heavily, a sound that wasn't lost in the quiet of the room. "I shouldn't have broken down like that." She said, her voice full of regret. "I've probably really scared them."

"Hey, it's alright." He whispered, stroking her hair softly.

"I told them he would kill them." She said. "That's the last thing I should have said to them."

"As much as I hate to admit it, you were telling the truth." Jack agreed, and he felt Kate's shoulder shudder from the withheld tears that she was refusing to release. "Kate, baby, we've been through this a thousand times...you can't be strong all the time. Everyone has to break at some point."

"Why does it always have to be me?" She asked.

"Because when you break, you've always got me to pick up the peices and put them back together again." He reminded her.

"Thank God." She murmered, buring her face against his shoulder whilst he held her.

"We should get some sleep." Jack told her.

Kate shook her head weakly. "I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight."

"Then you're just going to lie down with me, at least." He told her.

"Okay. I'll just go and check that the twins are actually in bed." She said, and kissed Jack.

She first checked Jasmine, seeing that she was still fast asleep, but was half hanging off the bed. She smiled gently, and lifted her daughter back into the bed, retrieving her stuffed dog from the floor, and then kissed her forehead as she she replaced the quilt over her.

Her next stop was Evelyn's room. Her big window was open still from earlier, so Kate walked across the room and pulled it so it wasn't wide open, but still allowed a breeze into the room. She turned and saw Evelyn fast asleep, curled up on her side. She always slept on left side.

Just as she suspected when she entered his room, Evan was also sleep, curled on his right side. When the twins were younger, and they had shared a bedroom, Evan and Evelyn would still sleep on their sides, Evelyn on her left, Evan on his right, and they would face towards each other across the room. Kate wondered whether they were the positions they lay in inside her womb all those years ago, curled tightly facing each other.

She went back into her bedroom, and climbed into bed beside Jack, who was lying on his back. He opened his arms to her as she crawled beside him, and she laid her head on his chest.

"They okay?" He asked.

She nodded against him. "All fast asleep." She confirmed.

"At least some of us are." He muttered.

"What happens now?" Kate asked him.

"We protect ourselves." Jack nodded. "Keep the kids away from Ethan at all costs."

Kate nodded with him, and then curled closer around him. "I'm scared, Jack, I don't want to lose them."

"We're not going to lose them." He assured her.

"I don't want to lose you either."

Jack kept one arm around her, and brought the other one to pick up her hand that lay on his chest. He kissed her knuckles. "Kate, I married you because I love you, and I always will. Nothing is going to change that." He kissed her on the lips, caressing them with his own. "We might get seperated along the way sometimes, but we'll always find each other. Nothing can keep us apart."

She smiled, and they kissed again. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad that it's you who picks up the pieces." She told him, settling her head down on his chest again. "You always glue them in the right places."

Jack smiled, kissing the top of her head. "That's what I'm here for."

Kate sighed again. "I can still remember the first time we nearly lost the twins." Nothing would take away the memory of the fear she felt that day she thought she had a miscarriage.

"So can I." Jack whispered. He, too, remembered every agonising moment of it. "There was a crazy old man in the bed next to you, telling me that everything was going to be okay."

"He was right." Kate nodded.

"He said that you couldn't have lost your child because you still have a mother's glow, and that never lied."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure he was crazy?" She asked him.

Jack thought for a moment. Whenever he thought back to that day, he always remembered the 'crazy old man' in the bed next to Kate. He had never seen that man again other than that conversation. He had been right about everything. Kate did still have the glow of pregnancy around her, and they went on to have two beautiful twins.

"Come to think of it, no." He realised.

"Fifteen years ago..." Kate mused. "We didn't even know each other. It's only been fourteen years."

"Wonderful years." Jack agreed. "I'm glad I spent them with you."


	20. Is Kerry A Robot?

At school the next day, Ashley was disgusted to see that Evelyn was still hanging around with Kerry. They all thought that the long discussion with their parents about Kerry's father might have knocked some sense into her, but clearly not. Ashley stayed beside Evan, glaring at the pair rather than doing her work.

"I can't believe that she's still sitting with Kerry." She moped.

Evan spoke without looking up from his work. "I talked to her about it earlier. It's going to look suspicious if she just ditches her all of a sudden."

"It would be better that way." Ashley insisted.

"Until she goes crying back to Daddy." Evan pointed out.

"Ah, good point."

He shook his head. "See, I have a brain, listen to it."

"I do listen to it!" She insisted. "What's the answer to question three?"

* * *

"So dad's started working at this new business firm today. It's not in medicine, like he wanted, but he said that it looks promising." Kerry babbled on to Evelyn, who was just staring into space.

"Hmm..."

"You okay?" Kerry asked.

"Huh?" She said, snapping out of her trance.

"You haven't listened to a word I've said." Kerry realised.

"Sorry." Evelyn said half-heartedly.

Kerry looked at her strangely. "Are you mad at me?" She asked.

"What? No." Evelyn said quickly.

"Are you sure? Because you're being really off today." Kerry pointed out.

_That's because I found out why you're really friends with me and that your father tried to kill my parents friends. _"I just don't feel all that good today." She shrugged. "My sister's just had a cold, I probably caught it off of her or something."

"Oh, okay." Kerry said quietly, almost like she didn't believe it.

The teacher looked up from his desk. "Girls, I'm coming over in four minutes and if you're not on question six at least, there'll be trouble."

* * *

At lunch, Evelyn walked into the cafeteria without Kerry following her, and rushed over to Evan, leaning on the table infront of him.

"If anyone asks, Jazz had just gotten over a cold." She told him quickly.

"Wait, what?" He asked, with his mouth full of a sandwich.

"Kerry noticed that I'm not myself today, and if she mentions anything to you, I've caught it off of Jasmine." She explained.

Evan smirked. "Digging yourself in a hole already?" He asked.

"Yeah, and like we said, I'm trying not to make it look suspicious." She told him, before walking away from him.

"Evie, wait!" He called after her.

"What?" She asked when she turned. "I've got to get to the library, she's waiting for me."

"I'm sorry." He told her.

She frowned. "For what?"

"For all the stuff that I said yesterday." He said, ashamed. "I didn't mean it."

She gave him a smile. "It's okay."

"Chin up, yeah? It's going to work out."

She nodded, and walked off, muttering under her breath. "I sure hope so."

* * *

Making his way to the cafeteria, Aaron was moving quickly. The corridors were empty, as he had been kept behind in math for talking, so he ran down it's length to get to lunch before he got caught in the line. He wasn't paying any attention to where he was going and ran head on into someone, knowing both of them over.

"Whoa!" He exclaimed. "Sorry about that."

He held out a hand to help the person up. "Don't worry, it was my fault." The person said, and raised her head to look at him. "It wasn't looking where - oh, hey."

"Uh...hey." He said awkwardly.

"Aaron, right?" She remembered.

"Yeah, um...hey, Kerry." He muttered.

"Sorry I knocked you over." She said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it." He assured her, looking around for a way out.

"Have you seen Evie around?" She asked him.

He shook his head. "Uh, no...not today."

Kerry looked away bitterly, and got a strange expression. Aaron noticed, and looked curiously at her, and was surprised to see that her hazel eyes turned darker and darker until her entire eye was a coal black colour. He gasped, and backed away.

"But, um, if I see her, I'll let her know that you're looking for her."

And he ran off, leaving the black-eyed girl in the corridor alone.

* * *

Ashley was still moping about Evelyn spending time with Kerry, no matter how much Evan told her that it was all part of the master plan.

"You think that after everything last night, she'd be sitting with us." She said, and Evan groaned.

"Ash, we've been talking about this all day, can we drop it?"

"What-"

"Guys! Guys!" Aaron called as he entered the cafeteria and skidded along the bench to sit opposite them.

"What's up?" Evan asked him while he caught his breath.

"Something weird just happened." He told them. "I ran into Kerry in the corridor..."

"Whoa, that is weird." Ashley said sarcastically.

"No, you don't get it." Aaron continued. "Her eyes, they turned black."

"What?"

"Aaron, that's scientifically impossible." Evan said simply.

"Trust me, it happened." He nodded.

"Are you sure-?"

"It happened." Aaron insisted.

"What does that mean?" Ashley asked.

"I think she's a robot." Aaron suggested.

Evan burst out laughing. "Don't be ridiculous, Aaron. She's not a robot."

Aaron looked at him seriously. "I bet you twenty dollars she's a robot." He said, holding out his hand for Evan to shake on it.

Evan noticed the determined expression on Aaron's face, and shook his head slowly, taking his hand. "Make it fifty."

"Done."

Ashley rolled her eyes. "I don't believe you guys."


End file.
